bd EnergY LinK

BAPEX, the state-owned energy exploration firm, will drill exploratory well at a potential field in Sunamganj-Netrakona area next year as a preliminary survey estimates the presence of nearly two trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas there, officials said.

The company officials said if the exploratory well brings positive results the company will go for developing wells for production of natural gas by 2013.

“BAPEX will drill exploratory well in the gas field next year. We are very much hopeful of producing a good quantity of gas from the potential structure,” Petrobangla chairman Hossain Mansur told the FE Saturday.

He said the preliminary estimate based on the last two-dimensional (2D) survey has suggested a reserve of 2-tcf of recoverable gas in the field, situated in Dharmapasa Upazila in north-eastern Sunamganj district.

“We will complete the exploratory well drilling next year and will analyse the data. If the gas is struck, we will go for well development works aiming to produce gas by 2013,” a senior BAPEX official said.

He said the gas field is situated in the Surma-basin where the country’s largest Bibiyana gas field is situated. “The new structure in the same basin has made us more hopeful.”

BAPEX (Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd.) has conducted 2D seismic survey in 300-line kilometers in 2009 and 259-line kilometer early this year.

The survey data has been interpreted by the BAPEX. The data analysis has been communicated to the state-run energy corporation –Petrobangla.

The Petrobangla chairman asked the BAPEX to complete exploratory well drilling in the potential gas field as soon as possible as the country is facing acute energy crisis.

Bangladesh’s daily natural gas demand is more than 2200 million cubic feet (mcf). The gas producers supply less than 2000mcf of gas a day.

BAPEX general manager Amzad Hossain said it is expected that there is a big dispersion of gas structure in Sunamganj-Netrokona areas. “We are very much hopeful of discovering a large quantity of gas in that structure.”

The BAPEX has already taken initiatives to conduct seismic survey in other potential sites including Modanganj, Khaliazhuri, Bazitpur in Netrakona-Sunamganj areas.

Amzad Hossain said: “As the potential gas structure in Sunamganj-Netrokona is situated in haor and bill areas, roads and other infrastructure will be developed first before going for further works in the gas field.”