After last year’s successful discovery of a gas reserve at Srikail gas field, Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) has found a new reserve at the ninth well of Haripur Gas Field.
On the discovery, SGFL General Manager (Operations) Pradip Kumar Biswas said they are now conducting drill stem test at the well.
"After the trial run, production will be started from the level where the volume of reserve is good. We are hopeful about going for production this month," he said.
Quoting the Development Project Proposal (DPP), he said the new well is expected to produce 188 barrels or 7 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
The SGFL has awarded the well to Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) for drilling, he added.
Also Read - Drilling begins at ninth well of Haripur Gas Field
Bapex started drilling the well on October 1 last year and the new gas reserve was found at a depth of 1,998 meters underground on Monday evening, according to sources at the gas fields.
SGFL is a subsidiary of the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Minerals Corporation (Petrobangla). Although the company was incorporated on May 8, 1982, its history of production and sale of natural gas dates to 1960 under the umbrella of its predecessor, erstwhile Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL).
PPL discovered gas at Sylhet Well No 1 at Haripur in Sylhet district in 1955. It was the first hydrocarbon gas field discovered in the country.
At present, the SGFL has under its umbrella five gas fields -- Haripur, Rashidpur, Chhatak, Kailashtilla, and Beanibazar. However, the Chhatak Gas Field is currently abandoned.
About 22 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas is being extracted from the new reserve at Well No 4 of the Srikail gas field in Comilla's Muradnagar upazila, which was discovered in March 2020.
Currently, Bapex is producing about 90 mmcf of gas per day from seven onshore gas fields - Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutang, Sundulpur, Srikail and Begumganj.
Bangladesh currently has demand for 3.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), whereas the gas supply is 2.7bcfd - a massive shortage of 1bcfd of gas every day.
Bangladesh discovered its 27th gas field in Bheduria of Bhola in October 2017.
