100 trillion cubic feet natural gas reserve in Talpatti: Indian media

Risingbd Desk: Though Bangladesh is describing recent verdict on maritime delimitation as a victory for it, NDTV and some India media have published stories claiming that India was not the loser.

NDTV reports that even though India believes the delimitation has been done in an arbitrary fashion, it is not the loser. Control of the disputed New Moore Island and concomitant access to Hariabhanga river is a significant gain. The island, supposedly rich in oil and natural gas, has been a traditional sore point between the two neighbouring countries.
 
The Hariabhanga river, which flows around the Sundarbans in West Bengal and borders Satkhira district of Bangladesh, and the region holds twice the amount of hydrocarbons as compared to the Krishna-Godavari basin in Andhra Pradesh.
 
The verdict is also good news for the fishermen of both countries who now have access to a larger area for fishing.
 
"The settlement of the maritime boundary will further enhance mutual understanding and goodwill between India and Bangladesh by bringing to closure a long-pending issue," India`s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

Firstpost.com, an India media outlet, ran an analysis titled ‘UN panel verdict allows India access to Hariabhanga gas reserves, Dhaka gets 20 K sqkm EEZ.’

“For India too it is a matter of satisfaction and also a diplomatic victory for several reasons. One, the United Nations` Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague acknowledged India`s sovereignty over New Moore Island and grants India concomitant access to the Hariabhanga river,” Rajeev Sharma, Firstpost Consulting Editor and a strategic analyst, writes.

The disputed region was near the mouth of the Hariabhanga River, an area of huge strategic importance for India in the coming decades. In 2006, India had discovered 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in a creek about 50km to the south of the mouth of the Hariabhanga within the contested region, he mentioned in his write-up.

The Hariabhanga gas reserves are estimated to be almost twice what the entire Krishna-Godavari basin holds.

New Moore Island, better knows as South Talpatty in Bangladesh, has been claimed by both India and Bangladesh ever since it came into being in Bay of Bengal following a cyclone in 1970.

Nonetheless, the UN tribunal’s acknowledgment of the Indian sovereignty in the area hands over considerable strategic leverage to India. That is because the region is said to be rich in oil and natural gas reserves. Now India can legally explore and exploit the natural resources in this area, says the analytical report.

The second reason is equally important for India. While it is true that Bangladesh has ‘gained’ close to twenty thousand square kilometers in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), India has reasons to be happy as the award has split the area in question in favour of India which is significantly closer to India’s claim than to that of Bangladesh, it says.

Over and above these reasons there is a huge diplomatic take-away for both India and Bangladesh from the historic UN tribunal award, Rajeev Sharma mentioned in his write-up.

Now that both sides have made substantial gains and ended a major bilateral dispute as per the international law, it should spur them on to go for an amicable settlement of two other major pending issues: land boundary agreement and Teesta water sharing, he concludes.

Source: India media

risingbd/July 14, 2014/mukul