It is a good news that finally Bangladesh awarded the much anticipated oil and gas exploration right to ConocoPhillips and Ireland’s Tullow company. However the right to exploration is restricted to only two areas for each company and can not run into the disputed areas that was also claimed by India and Myanmar. While Bangladesh is playing nice and friendly to its neighbors, India and Myanmar is encroaching large swath of areas in the Bay of Bengal that belongs to Bangladesh territory and exploring gas and oil. According to the UN convention Bangladesh has the first right to any natural gas and mineral found on its territory. But India and Myanmar already got more than 100 trillion Cubit feet of gas and not sharing with Bangladesh which is a gross violation of UN act.

India recently submitted its claim to maritime areas while the Bangladeshi officials are sleeping. If India gets its claim heard before Bangladesh, there is a chance that Bangladesh will loose valuable maritime areas that holds rich deposits of minerals. Bangladesh needs to move fast to claim its territory and claim its boundary to safeguard its sovereign rights.