Staff Reporter :
Petrobangla, the state-owned oil, gas, and minerals corporation, has set an ambitious target to complete drilling of 48 wells across various gas fields by 2025.
This initiative is aimed at augmenting the national grid with an additional 618 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) of gas.
The endeavor, which involves both Petrobangla’s own companies and external contractors, is a response to the acute gas shortages impacting power and industrial sectors among others.
A senior Petrobangla official, speaking on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, expressed the corporation’s commitment to adhering to the project timeline.
“Petrobangla is very serious about implementing the plan on time and if necessary, we will seek a waiver from the provision of a mandatory feasibility study to avoid a time-consuming process,” the official stated.
The drilling operations are distributed between Petrobangla’s internal resources and outsourcing. Specifically, the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) will handle 23 of these wells, while the remaining 25 will be drilled by contracted firms under a crash program aimed at existing onshore gas fields.
“This initiative is part of the government’s ongoing plan to boost gas production from local reserves,” another Petrobangla official noted, also opting to remain anonymous.
Petrobangla took up the programme against the backdrop of declining gas production with depleting reserve positions.
The country’s 20 gas fields, out of a total of 29, produce between 1,600 and 1,900 MMCFD gas while another 1,000 MMCFD gas is being imported to meet the demand for about 4,000 MMCFD.
Officials also said the local fields are depleting fast and gas reserves are declining.
Currently, there are 9 trillion cubic feet of gas in the country’s reserve, out of a total of 30 TCF while 21 TCF has already been produced.
The gas demand is growing fast as many of the gas-fired power plants and new industries are being set up across the country.
As per scenario -2 of a projection of the Petrobangla, the country’s gas demand will go up to 5,092 MMCFD in 2029-30, 6072 MMCFD in 2034-35 and 6,986 in 2040-41. The plan for drilling 48 wells is a part of the ongoing plan under which drilling of some wells has already been completed, said another official of Petrobangla.
These wells include Bhola North-2, Togbi-1, Elisha-1, Srikail North-1, Shariatpur-1, Titas-24, Beanibazar-1, Koilash Tila-2, Sylhet-10, Rashidpur-2, and Sundalpur-3. These newly drilled wells have now been contributing 126 MMCFD gas to the national grid, the official said.