Energy sector experts have criticised the government’s announcement of the discovery of a new natural gas field in the southern district of Bhola, dubbing it premature.
Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media in Dhaka on Monday that Bapex had struck gas in the onshore Shahbazpur East 1 exploration well in Bhola district with estimated reserves of 700 billion cubic feet.
However, experts have cast doubt on these claims as the government appears to have made the announcement before the completion of tests intended to confirm the reserve of the gas field.
The Russian oil giant Gazprom has been drilling in Shahbazpur since August.
“The Drilling Steam Test (DST) to identify whether there is gas reserve or not will be started on October 30. A drilling steam test is carried out to find out how much recoverable gas the reserve has and how much it will produce every day,” an official of the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex), the exploration wing of state-owned Petrobangla, told the Dhaka Tribune on condition of anonymity.
The official added that the ‘login’ and ‘casing’ operations to determine the gas reserve had recently been completed and DST is to be the next step. He said the announcement of the existence of 700 billion cubic feet of gas may have been based on gas samples found during drilling, previous data and 3D seismic surveys.
“We assumed that the pressure of gas in the reserve is 5,200 PSIG, which, combined with the 3D survey may have led to the speculation that there is 700 billion cft of gas,” he said.
On August 6, 2017, Gazprom, as a contractor of Bapex, started the drilling of Shahbazpur East 1 exploration well onshore area to increase the supply of gas to the national grid. The well was planned under Rupkalpa 4 Drilling Project to implement the government’s Vision 2021 with the aim of meeting the rising demand of natural gas.
Under the project two exploration wells, Shahbazpur East 1 and Bhola North 1, and two workover wells of Shahbazpur gas field well 1 and 2 were to be drilled.
Without definitive testing, it is not wise to declare that there is 700 billion cubic feet gas in the Shahbazpur East 1 field solely depending on 3D seismic survey
The government took the decision to award the contract to drill both wells to Russian energy giant Gazprom even though Bapex was capable of drilling the wells itself.
Gazprom’s drilling of each well costs around Tk 200 crore, whereas Bapex could do the same job for Tk70-80 crore per well, experts say.
Controversy over the gas field
A Bapex official said the new gas field is located 3.5km east of Shahbazpur. However, other officials said the gas reserve might just be an extension of the Shahbazpur gas field which was discovered in 1993.
A Bapex official said requesting anonymity: “The new well is said to be the extended gas zone of the Shahbazpur, so announcing that as a new gas zone is not a good decision.”
“The drilling work of the well has recently been completed up to 3,500 metres. There is gas reserve which can be known after doing 3D seismic survey and other tests. But to know the exact reserve of gas more drilling is needed.” Managing Director of Bapex Md Nowshad Islam told the Dhaka Tribune on Monday.
“Then only it can be said how much gas is there,” He added, confirming that Drilling Steam Test (DST) has not been completed.
There was controversy over the size of gas reserves in Shahbazpur earlier as well.
At first it was said that there was 600 billion cubic feet gas but later it was calculated that the extractable gas reservation was 332 billion cubic feet.
Over-reliance on 3D seismic surveys
Without definitive testing, it is not wise to declare that there is 700 billion cubic feet gas in the Shahbazpur East 1 field solely depending on 3D seismic survey, experts said.
A 3D seismic survey in 2012 led to the announcement of an oil find in the Kailashtilla field in Sylhet. Disappointment cast a shadow over state-run Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) after a two-year test drilling effort yielded an empty well, crushing the government’s hopes of striking oil.
The media hype in 2012 followed a three-dimensional seismic survey by Bapex, conducted over 190 square kilometres in Kailashtilla which suggested that Well 7 possessed large oil reserves.
Bapex, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, was tasked with drilling the well that was projected at the time to be able to produce 500 barrels of oil and 25 mmcfd gas per day.
No addition to national grid
The gas from the newly announced gas field cannot easily be added to the national grid because the cost of building a pipeline from Bhola would be prohibitive. The district is practically an island which means the gas from Shahbazpur will need to be used in the locality. The government has plans to build three power plants in Bhola.
“The figure which is announced would be acceptable if that was announced after doing all the examination and surveys. This type of conceptual announcement is not acceptable to us. It is true that huge gas reserves exist in Bhola and we will be really happy if that can be found finally.” Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) professor and energy expert Dr Ijaz Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune on Monday.
Bapex is currently producing and supplying 92 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid every day from its seven gas fields in Saldanadi, Fenchuganj, Shahbazpur, Semutung, Sundalpur, Srikail and Rupganj.
Bangladesh produces a total of 2.7 billion cubic feet natural gas a day against a demand of 3.4 billion.
