DHAKA, Aug 5: Oil giant Shell has sold its assets in Bangladesh to Britain’s Cairn Energy in a $75 million deal amid persistent delays to a government decision on whether to export natural gas, company officials said Tuesday.

Bangladesh has proven recoverable gas reserves of 13 trillion cubic feet, of which more than three trillion has already been extracted, according to official figures.

The United States and other major donor countries have pressed Bangladesh to export gas, most likely to neighbouring India, arguing that it would bring the country much-needed cash.

Finance Minister Saifur Rahman has repeatedly said a decision would be taken soon as there was no point keeping energy resources in the ground.

However, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s government has taken no decision on gas exports since coming to power in October 2001, with officials saying they were looking for a national consensus and that the issue could be debated by parliament.

The main opposition Awami League party, headed by Zia’s arch-rival and predecessor as premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed, says exporting gas would hamper national interests and that Bangladesh must first be sure it has a 50-year reserve.

Zia’s own Bangladesh Nationalist Party opposed gas exports before coming to power.

US oil giant Unocal has urged a quick decision, saying it is ready to invest $500 million in Bangladesh as soon as the government agrees to export natural gas.

Unocal is proposing a 1,360 km (850 miles) gas pipeline stretching to India’s western state of Gujarat, which it says will also increase energy access within Bangladesh.

According to the fortnightly Dhaka-based trade journal, Energy and Power, the Bangladesh government as of May 2003 owed more than $74 million to Shell, Cairn and US oil giant Halliburton for operating Sangu.

Shell began operating in Bangladesh in 1950 when the country was part of Pakistan. It made a major investment in 1999 by buying part of Cairn’s operations.—AFP