I would caution Mr. Kamal with some advice offered by Napoleon Bonaparte: Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. One reason that the size of Titas field reserves remains murky is that Petrobangla historically was never allocated sufficient funds to properly delineate the field through additional exploration wells. To determine the extent of a reservoir, engineers typically attempt to drill exploration wells on the outer fringes of the geological structure ("the flank"). These wells are risky endeavors since they may (or may not) be convertible to production wells. In the past, Bangladesh was forced to go hat in hand to the World Bank to seek funds to drill wells to produce gas needed for power and fertiliser production. Since the World Bank was reluctant to fund risky delineation wells, the wells were typically drilled in the safest part of the reservoir, on the top of the structure, where the wells were expected to find and produce hydrocarbons. As a result, the true extent of the geological structure was never determined, and reserve levels remained an educated guess. This pattern was repeated at all the other assets under administration by Petrobangla.

I suspect that the issue of gas security could be clarified if the government would allocate funds sufficient for Petrobangla to properly delineate and model the huge assets now under their administration.. To alleviate what Mr. Kamal considers to be his country's pending gas crisis, Bangladesh needs to adopt a new model of cooperation between the government, Petrobangla, and the IOCs. History suggests that this may be asking too much.