"We have received a letter from the energy division to develop the coal mine," Rezaul Halim, a senior manager of Petrobangla, told Reuters.

He said that Bangladeshi firm Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, was extracting coal at the Barapukuria field with technical assistance from a Chinese coal mining firm.

"We will also be able to develop and explore this coal field with such foreign technical assistance," Halim said.

Another senior energy official said that a number of foreign coal firms had shown interest in this field, but the government was eager to use Bangladeshi expertise.

The current coal reserve in the country's five coal fields was around 2.55 billion tonnes. Of them, the Phulbari coal field was awarded to the Asia Energy Corporation (Bangladesh), a sister firm of UK-based GCM Resources PLC.

Experts said the gas reserve in the country was rapidly depleting which prompted the authorities to build coal-based power plants in the country.

Bangladesh faces a power deficit of up to 2,000 megawatts (MW) against demand of 5,000 MW daily, energy officials said.

The country, which has 13.54 trillion cubic feet of proven and recoverable gas, is likely to face a gas shortage by 2011, when current reserves will be exhausted, energy officials said.