Staff Reporter :
Petrobangla has begun drilling a well at Shahbazpur Gas Field in the southern district of Bhola by expecting to produce 20-25 million cubic feet (mmcft) of gas daily.
Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom was appointed as the contractor for drilling the Tagbi-1 well.
The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex), a subsidiary of Petrobangla, appointed Gazprom as a part of the government’s initiative to increase domestic production amid a volatile global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market.
Mahbub Hossain, Senior Secretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, inaugurated the drilling activity on Friday while Petrobangla Chair Nazmul Ahsan was also present there.
“The Tagbi-1 drilling initiative is part of Petrobangla’s plan to dig 46 wells across the country by 2025,” Nazmul said.
Gazprom will drill the well up to a 3,500-metre depth.
Under the project, two more exploratory wells will be drilled in Ilisha-1 and Bhola North-2, Nazmul added.
On the other hand, State Minister for the Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid recently has expressed hope in a Facebook post that 20-25 million cubic feet of gas will be available daily from Tobgi-1 well of Shahbazpur gas field in Bhola.
The state minister said that under this project, two more exploration wells Elisha-1 and Bhola North-2 will be dug soon.
He said that the government has strengthened domestic energy exploration activities. To this end, we plan to drill 46 new exploration, development and workover wells during 2022-25.
Nasrul Hamid said, after assuming responsibility in 2009, under the leadership of the current government, the Energy Department has so far drilled 21 explorations, 50 development and 56 workover wells. By the hands of Awami League government Bangladesh got few new gas fields.
The state minister also said that due to emphasis on domestic mineral resource exploration, our gas production increased to 2750 million cubic feet per day (MMCF) in 2018, which was 1,744 MMCF per day in 2009.
He said that due to the decrease in the reserves of the wells, although the production has decreased slightly, the daily natural gas supply of Bangladesh including LNG is about 3,300 million cubic feet.
Shahbazpur Gas Field was discovered by Bapex in 1995. Gas production from the field started in May 2009.
