Flare test not held at Bibiyana Gas Field

However, local administration will meet the leaders of the agitators in presence of the company officials at 4 pm today.

Local people are agitating for a long time for realisation of their 14-point demand.

The demands include supply of gas to villages in the upazila before transporting it to other parts of the country, development and construction of roads and bridges in the area, setting up of gas and power plants and creating job opportunity for local people in all gas-based establishments.

About 400 demonstrators kept the road leading to north pad of Bibiyana Gas Field blocked for the last two days. They also took out processions on the approach road of the north pad. Processionists paraded the road chanting slogans in favour of their demands. As the company men failed to reach the gas field, they abandoned the flare test programme for two consecutive days.

The company officials held a meeting with the agitators for one-and-a-half hours Sunday evening. But it yielded no positive result.

On contact, a Chevron official said that they had been incurring a huge loss during the period.

The gas field was supposed to be readied for production after flare test in all seven wells in north pad, he said.

'We are hopeful to get a positive outcome from today's meeting', he said adding the company is ready to extend assistance to local people. We have already employed about 400 people from the locality, he said. But, the decision to supply gas and rendering other facilities to local people depend on the Bangladesh government, he said.

Bibiyana Dabi Aday Bastabayan Parishad started agitation in 1997 just after start of work of the gas field by US Occidental company. The company met some of the demands but the major ones remained unmet till now.

However, there are allegations against a few leaders for taking personal benefits like small-scale contracts and others from the major project.

As a result, the agitation stumbled at times due to such activities, locals said. But, Bibiyana Dabi Bastabayon Parishad president Shajahan Siraj denied the allegations saying we are agitating for common people's interest, not for our own interest. We are not sub-contractors, he added.