A man looks at the flame from Tengratila Gas Field explosion in 2005. Photo: Star

Canadian company Niko has been mired in controversies ever since it entered the country's energy sector.
It was disqualified in an oil and gas block bidding in 1996 as a small, new and inexperienced company.  Later, Niko lobbied the then Awami League government to give it a partnership deal with Bapex in the development of marginal or abandoned gas fields.
The then energy secretary Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury responded to the lobbying but could not seal the deal due to the change of power.

Tarique Rahman's aide Giasuddin Al Mamun, an accused in a case relating to a deal to give Niko an unexplored gas field in Chhatak East, flouting rules. Photo: Star

As the BNP-led alliance assumed power in 2001, Niko turned to the young leaders of Hawa Bhaban, which was known as an alternative power centre of the then government, and had the unsolicited deal done by 2003.
Although the deal was meant for three marginal gas fields, the company was given an unexplored gas field in Chhatak East in violation of the rules.
Niko succeeded in developing an old field in Feni in 2004 but its incompetent and negligent operation in Chhatak led to two blowouts the next year. The government demanded compensation for that but the Canadian company refused to pay.
The Anti-Corruption Commission in 2007 filed two cases against the incumbent prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, the opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, and a number of officials and a Niko representative for the Niko deal.
Giasuddin Al Mamun, a close friend of Khaleda's son Tarique Rahman, is among the accused. The following year, the government sued the company at a Dhaka court, claiming compensation.
A magazine of Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail in August 2011 revealed that Niko had paid half a million dollars to Hawa Bhaban men to get a controversial joint venture deal with Bapex in 2003.
The magazine citing Canadian police records of Giasuddin's statements added that initially Niko offered him $10,000 to make the deal successful. But Mamun ultimately failed to do so.
The report quoted him as saying that as a mere buddy of the then prime minister's son, there was only so much he could do. "My power is 50%," he had said.
Businessman Selim Bhuiyan, who separately gave confessional statements to a court in Dhaka, had said Niko deposited more than half a million US dollars in his bank account. He dispersed some of the money to those close to the then prime minister Khaleda Zia, including Mamun.
A portion of the payment, Bhuiyan believed, had gone to Khaleda's son Tarique.
The Canadian court did not try Niko for bribing these people in the face of two challenges -- one is gathering evidence in Bangladesh and another getting witnesses before a Canadian court.