Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the work on inking deals with the ConocoPhillips Asia Pacific and Staitoil ASA for the deep sea blocks DS-12, DS-08, DS-16 and DS-21 is under process following the model PSC 2012.

‘A total of four agreements were signed for the development of the national energy and mineral resources from 2009 to now,’ she said this in reply to a question raised by ruling party lawmaker Enamul Haque (Rajshahi) during her question answer session in Sangshad.

Sheikh Hasina said a deal with US company ConocoPhillips has been signed for the deep sea blocks DS-08-10 and DS-08-11 in 2011 under the offshore biding round 2008 as per the Production Sharing Contact (PSC).

‘The deal was cancelled on 15 December 2014, as the US oil company was reluctant to continue the development activities of the oil blocks after conducting seismic survey for three years since the signing of the PSC,’ she said.

The prime minister said the government inked two agreements with Indian oil company ONGC Videsh Ltd and Oil India Limited on 17 February 2014 for blocks SS-04 and SS-09 of the shallow sea area under the offshore bidding round 2012 as per model PSC 2012.

Besides, she said, a deal was signed with the Australian company Santos and Singaporean company Cris Energy on 12 March 2014 jointly for block 11.

Sheikh Hasina told the same lawmaker that a total of 5,751 megawatts of electricity were added to the national grid through 67 power plants from January 2009 to January 2015. Of this amount of electricity, 500-MW was imported from India, she said.