Staff Reporter :
Chevron has started production of gas from its two new wells out of three in Sylhet, aimed at easing the country’s chronic energy shortages.
The US oil and energy company, largest foreign investor in Bangladesh’s energy sector, will initially produce around 130 mmcf (million cubic feet) of gas per day from the three wells at Jalalabad gas field.
Another well in the field is expected to begin production by the start of next year.
“This is the culmination of a long drilling campaign that Chevron started in November 2014,” the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement on Sunday.
“Bangladesh is an energy starving country and we need more power and energy to achieve our vision to become a middle income country by the year of 2021,” said Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.
He also urged Chevron to train more Bangladeshis to work in the energy sector.
Bangladesh currently faces up to 500 mmcf of gas shortages a day. “Jalalabad is a very important field and plays a crucial role in ensuring the overall gas supply in Bangladesh,” said Ishtiaque Ahmad, Chairman of the State run Petrobangla.
“Had there been no indigenous gas in the country, we would have been compelled to spend an enormous amount of foreign exchange to import fuel oil and gas,” he said.
Discovered in 1989, the Jalalabad gas field first came on limelight in 1999, and has been performing with an uninterrupted efficiency of 99.9 per cent since 2001.
Chevron Bangladesh is supplying more than 50 per cent of the total gas output of 1.5 bft (billion cubic feet) per day. “For over a decade now, Chevron has been supporting Bangladesh to reduce the nation’s reliance on imported energy by investing resources to deliver more gas, safely and reliably,” said Kevin Lyon, President of Chevron in Bangladesh.
