Winning the case against Niko Resources is the outcome of professional efficacy and integrated approach, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources (MPEMR) Nasrul Hamid has said.
Institutional corruption is impossible if political commitment towards good governance prevails, he added.
Mr Hamid was speaking as the chief guest in a webinar titled ‘NIKO Arbitration 2020: Political & Judicial Antecedents and Aftermath’, organised by DUCSU Law and Politics Review on Saturday.
The coordinated efforts of the government helped to prove in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) that Niko was liable for the two consecutive blowouts at Tengratila in northeastern Chhatak gas field in 2005, the minister said.
The verdict was released on February 28 2020.
Bangladesh submitted a claim for a total loss of US$ 1.01 billion to the ICSID, of which $896 million claimed as the loss of government and $118 million as the loss of state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX), said Mr Hamid.
In the final claim, as per the ICSID instruction, Bangladesh will add losses of environmental and human health, besides the direct losses from the gas field blowouts.
At the final stage of the case, ICSID will ascertain the amount of the losses after scrutiny.
Niko initiated its Bangladesh operations in the Feni gas field under an unsolicited joint venture with BAPEX in 2003.
The Canadian firm was awarded the job bypassing tender. In the joint venture agreement, Niko had 80 per cent stake while Bapex had 20 per cent.
Barrister Moin Ghani, leaders of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) Md Azhar Uddin and Shahrima Tanzin Orni, and Dr Rumana Islam, Professor of Law at the University of Dhaka also took part in the event.
azizjst@yahoo.com
