New gas field identified in Bhola
The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (BAPEX) has identified a new gas field in Bhola amid the crisis of gas in the country. State minister for power, energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid announced this on Monday.
He said, “The Ilisha-1 well in Bhola district is the 29th gas field of the country. We believe Ilisha-1 has a reserve of 200 billion cubic feet (BCF) of gas. Gas fields in the Bhola area, including this one, have a reserve of 3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas.”
He said this while briefing the newspersons on this at his residence in Dhaka on Monday adding that, “It is great news for the country.”
On 8 March this year, the excavation for the Ilisha-1 well started in the Maler Hat area of Ilisha union in Bhola Sadar upazila and the drilling was completed successfully on 24 April through the drill stem test in three levels at a depth of 3,475 metres.
The state minister said earlier gas was found in different wells under Bhola north and Bhola south structures.
He said a plan was being developed to extract gas from the entire Bhola area to Dhaka through a pipeline where many industries are facing a nagging crisis.
A pre-feasibility was conducted about the pipeline and now work is underway for conducting a feasibility study on the issue, he noted.
Nasrul said it would take about two to three years to bring the gas from Bhola to Dhaka through a pipeline.
But initially, he said, a private company has signed a contract to bring a total of 25 mm CFD gas from Bhola through a big trailer. Primarily, it will start with 5 mm CFD transportation.
Nasrul Hamid further said the government has a plan to create a ring-fence of pipeline covering Bhola, Barishal, and Dhaka to use the gas for this region while another ring-fence will be created covering Dhaka, Sylhet and other districts.
“The commercial value of gas extracted from Bhola gas fields will be Tk 65 billion in local price and Tk 260 billion in international price,” he added.
Currently, about 2300 mm CFD gas is being produced from 22 gas fields in the country, while about 700 mm CFD gas is being imported from abroad to meet the demand of about 4000 mm CFD, leaving a deficit of about 1000 mm CFD.
Apart from Ilisha-1, the two other gas fields in Bhola have around 200 mm CF production capacity, while the production hovers between 80-85 mm CF.
Therefore, around 120 mm CF surplus capacity remains unused in the eight wells of the Shahbazpur and Bhola gas fields.
Due to the lack of pipeline and transmission facilities, the government was unable to supply the surplus gas from the Bhola field to other energy-hungry industrial zones in Dhaka and elsewhere.