17-03-09 French giant Total and its four partners have abandoned their rights to explore oil and gas in two offshore blocks in Bangladesh, a senior official said. Total, the operator of thee blocks, and its partners, Irish player Tullow Oil, Thailand's PTTEP and US companies Oakland and Rexwood have found after spending about $ 30 mm that the blocks 17 and 18 would be commercially unviable, the official said.
"It is really discouraging news for us as we are facing serious gas shortages," Jalal Ahmed, chairman of the state-managed Petrobangla told.

In February Petrobangla said Total had confirmed the presence of natural gas in an offshore field about 420 km (263 miles) south-east of Dhaka.
Jalal said Total and its partners had carried out a 3D seismic survey and identified hydrocarbon reserves of a little more than 270 bn cf over 18,367 sq km, covering the world's largest beach Cox's Bazar and parts of Bay of Bengal.

Total's exit from these blocks is the second such incident in the country's energy exploration history. In February British company Cairn Energy and its partners relinquished their rights to hunt for oil and gas in the country's onshore block no. 5 that covers greater Khulna district and parts of the world's largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, after seismic results reflected poor reserve.
They relinquished it officially finding the 10,976 sq km block "near barren" after investing $ 9.5 mm in the last three years in exploration activities including 400-line km seismic survey.

In blocks 17 and 18 Total holds a 30 % stake including the operatorship. Irish oil company Tullow has 32 %, followed by Thai energy giant PTTEP 30 % and US companies Oakland and Rexwood 8 % stakes in these structures.
State-run energy corporation Petrobangla awarded both the blocks to US joint venture Rexwood-Oakland during the country's first round energy bidding in January 1997, but the companies did not carry out any exploration work due to poor gas demand in the country during that time.

Later Tullow bought majority of the shares from the US companies.
In 2006 Tullow sold its 60 % stake to Total, which recently sold half of its stake to the PTTEP.