DHAKA: Petrobangla, a state-run oil and gas company has pleaded to Dhaka Judge Court seeking permission to crook assets of Canada based oil and natural gas exploration company Niko in Bangladesh.

Petrobangla chairman Dr Hossain Monsur confirmed the matter to banglanews.   

He said a case was filed in this regard on November last year. In March, a hearing was held. The next hearing will be held in June 1.   

In the case appeal, Petrobangla sought court direction to confiscate Niko’s all movable and immovable properties in Bangladesh including the share of Bangura gas field.    

In the same case, the Petrobangla also proposed to cancel the due bill of Feni gas field to Niko worth $ 27.31m.     

Bangladesh goes in this stance as the Niko Resource Ltd. does not compensate for the Tengratila gas field accident, which took place on January 7 and June 24 in 2005 in two phases.     

After the accident Petrobangla demanded around Tk. 747 crore compensations from Niko but Niko denied paying. Later, on June 15, 2008, Petrobangla lodged a case with Dhaka Judge court.

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) also filed a case challenging the Niko’s contract with Bangladesh.

The court had delivered the verdict that Bangladesh would stop to pay the bill of Feni gas field to Niko.   

After the verdict Niko goes to the High Court challenging the Judge Court verdict, but the High Court upheld the lower court’s decision.     

Later, Niko filed two cases with Washington based international arbitration court International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID) against Bangladesh.   

ICSID is set to hearing of a case of gas bill on April 28.

BDST: 1141 HRS, APR 03, 2014