State-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) confirmed the presence of new gas reserve at Shahbazpur East-1 well located at Borhanuddin upazila of Bhola district on Wednesday, officials said.
It flared up gas of around 30 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to make sure the new reserve, they said.
However, it will take some more days to estimate the quantity of the new reserve, Bapex managing director Md Nowshad Islam told the FE. "We confirmed having new gas today, after the flare up ranging between 25 to 30 mmcfd."
He said the gas has been flowing from around 3,500-metre depth and pressure of gas at the new well is around 5,500 pound per square inch (PSI).
Usually the country's currently producing onshore gas fields, including those operated by US's Chevron, had pressure ranging around 4,200 psi initially, he added.
The discovery of a new gas field in Bhola having an estimated reserve of around 700 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of reserve was announced on October 23.
Geologists, including former Bapex top officials who worked in Bhola for oil and gas exploration, however, said that the new well is within the similar structure of Shahbazpur gas field.
But, with the finding of gas in new well, the overall reserve of Shahbazpur gas field will increase significantly.
"It (new well) is also very optimistic over having the new gas with high pressure ranging above 5,000 psi," former Bapex managing director Amzad Hossain said.
The new well was drilled around three kilometres away from the existing producing gas wells in Shahbazpur gas field.
Russian Gazprom drilled the well in selected spots set by Bapex as a contractor, said the Bapex official.
The existing Shahbazpur gas field produces around 39 mmcfd of gas from three wells against their production capacity of around 50 mmcfd.
State-owned Petrobangla discovered Shahbazpur gas field in 1995 having the reserve of around 500 Bcf.
The proven gas reserves in the country's 26 discovered gas fields is estimated to be around 12.88 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) as in December 2016, Petrobangla says.
The country's natural gas production at present will be around 2,700 mmcfd against a demand of around 3,300 mmcfd.
To meet the mounting demand, the government has moved to start importing expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) likely from April next.
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