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Former US diplomat in favor of gas export |
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News |
June 30, 2000
Dhaka (UNB)- A retired US diplomat has prescribed pipeline gas export to India to transform some of gas into money Bangladesh needs to develop gas and overall economy. “Pipeline export will be the best option to get more value back,” Teresita C Schaffer told newsmen at the end of a two-day conference on ‘gas and development’ here yesterday. She said American companies might be interested in investing in the pipeline to reach gas up to Delhi and around if the market is ensured. Export of gas will be more beneficial for Bangladesh than to export electricity or fertilizer, she said.
Former US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and wife of a former US Ambassador to Bangladesh, Schaffer is now a director of Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that cosponsored the conference with Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies at Sonargaon Hotel. The conference aimed at disseminating lessons of experiences of how other gas-producing countries managed and developed their gas resource. Two gas consultants from Argentina and Bolivia described their countries’ experiences in managing gas resource. Raul Garcia, who served Argentine gas regulatory body, said his country earned US 300 million from gas exports in 1992, which picked up to US 2 billion last year following some reforms in gas management strategies. Keeping an 18 years’ gas reserve, Argentina directly sells gas to Chili and some other neighboring countries. “We also have electricity exports,” he added. Bolivian gas consultant Christian Iturri, who also served in gas regulatory body in his country, said they invited foreign investment, as the government did not have the money to explore and make pipelines for export. “We felt if there was a market then foreign companies would come to explore. Then we opened up the market and allowed exports,” he said. Bolivian state did not invest ‘a single dollar’ in constructing pipeline for export, he informed. As exploration has been privatized, Bolivian people are now holding 50 per cent shares of gas companies. Brazil is the largest market for Bolivian gas and gas exports bring in USD 500 million a year.
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