Amid criticism that the government has not done enough to explore new gas sources in recent years, Petrobangla has started exploration work at Beanibazar and its neighbouring Baralekha and Kanaighat upazilas under Sylhet Gas Field Ltd, officials say.
Mizanur Rahman, Managing Director of Sylhet Gas Field, said on Thursday that land has been acquired through local administration to drill new wells, hoping to explore new gas sources.
He said currently seismic survey was going on as part of the exploration work in the area.
“We will be able to understand if we have gas reserves in the new areas once more technical tests are done. If everything goes well, we will finally go for installing gas production plants,” he said.
He said China petroleum corporation’s EGP International has been contracted to conduct the exploration work across 191 square kilometres of area in three upazilas, and already it has completed 24 percent of the project work with a December, 2023 deadline to finish the job.
Petrobangla officials in Dhaka say the initiative to dig new wells is part of the government’s plan to drill a total of 46 exploration, development and work-over wells during the period 2022-2025 to increase production of natural gas from local sources against the backdrop of nagging gas crisis.
Petrobangla statistics show that the country currently produces about 2,648 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) against a demand for over 4000 mmcfd.
Different trade bodies say that their production is suffering because of lack of gas supply to their factories across the country.
In another development, Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) has resumed the excavation of an abandoned well (Well No. 1) of Beanibazar Gas Field.
The officials involved in the project said they were hoping to get 7 million cubic feet of gas per day from this well. The plant has two wells. The production of gas began at the Well No. 1 in 1999, but it was shut in 2014. Production resumed from that well again at the beginning of 2016 and stopped at the end of that year.
Managing Director Mizanur Rahman said that three more wells were being dug under Sylhet Gas Fields.
He said a significant amount of gas would be added to the national grid by 2023 if everything goes well.
Daily gas production from Sylhet Gas Fields Limited is expected to increase by 164 million cubic feet by 2025 after implementation of all projects, he said.
The officials say the production and supply from local gas fields has been declining since 2015 and will continue to decline in the future unless new exploration work is not done.
