Anisul Islam Noor :New assessment says Bibiyana Gas Field has a reserve of over 7 TCF gas marking an increase of 1.5 TCF over the earlier reserve in the gas field, Petrobangla, sources said. Experts said this is a big claim and a Petrobangla team is working on verification of the claim.Some of them moreover fear there is chance Chevron may use the claim to go for more extraction and deplete the reserves to make quick encashment of their investment. So a highly credible verification is now in card. Chevron BD Ltd, which operates the gas field, conducted the survey by engaging a consultant firm. The firm DeGolyer and MacNaughton made the new assessment based on the data accumulated from the newly drilled wells in the southern region of the Bibiyana Gas Field at the block No. 12. Petrobangla Director Md Quamruzzaman said they have set up a committee which is currently working to verify the claim. US oil company Chevron submitted the new reserves report to Petrobangla in the last week of February saying that the reserve would now be about seven TCF over earlier assessed reserves at 5.5 TCF. the official said.In the report, Chevron also said that it would be able to supply about 1,400 million cubic feet gas a day (mmcfd) by the middle of 2015 based on new discovery and prospect of enhanced supply to the national grid. At present, it supplies 1,200 mmcfd to the national grid. Chevron has requested Petrobangla to allow it to install a gas compressor station at the Bibiyana Gas Field to increase the volume of gas extraction. Chevron alone now supplies over 1,200 mmcfd gas which is around 42.5 per cent of total daily supply, according to Petrobangla data. Chevron increased gas extraction from 700mmcf daily to 1200 mmcf based on a revised assessment in 2009. Experts and some Petrobangla officials expressed concern over Chevron’s claim of new reserves at Bibiyana as some of them fear that the US Company may be claiming higher reserves to accelerate volume of gas extractions from the gas field to exhaust the reserves as quickly as possible.It might be a new ploy similar to one Cairn Energy has done in case of Sangu gas field in the off-shore waters to make cash of their investment. But if the claim of higher reserves is genuine, they said, it will be definitely good news for the country adding that the reserve then should be protected for future use, not for immediate use and exhaust it right now. Dhaka University’s Geology Department Professor Badrul Imam said that Bibiyana could be kept in production for two to three decades more. Gas extraction from some of the wells at the Bibiyana gas field had already been exhausted as sand was coming out of the wells due to higher rate of gas extraction, Badrul Imam said. Apart from other issues, he said, Chevron has already gained a significant level of bargaining power as the government is depending on the company for about 42.5 per cent of the total gas supply. Chevron is supplying 1200 mmcfd gas from Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulvibazar fields as against the total gas supply of about 2,600 mmcfd to the national grid now, Petrobangla data said. Badrul Imam warned, there might be a ‘blackout-like’ effect if the gas supply from the lone gas field gets disrupted for concentrating about 65 per cent of electricity generation from gas-fired plants and use of gas in hundreds of factories and nearly 2.5 million domestic kitchens. Gas supply disruption from Bibiyana field in the past two years had already produced bitter experiences through drastic fall in power generation, hampering industrial production with many other multiplied effects. Petrobangla Director Md Quamruzzaman said that the government would make a decision considering all the aspects. Cairn Energy, the then operator of Sangu gas field in the Bay of Bengal, had increased gas extraction to about 220 mmcfd in 2002 from 60 mmcfd in 1999 saying that the company reassessed the reserve and found about one TCF of more natural gas, which was initially estimated at 0.45 TCF. Experts opined that the high rate of gas extraction, compared with the field’s capacity, damaged internal structure, leading to a premature death of the field by 2013.
