Bapex hits new gas reserve at Srikail

---

M Azizur Rahman
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) discovered Friday a commercially viable natural gas reserve at Srikail in Comilla district, some 100 km off the capital, a top government official has said.
"We have found presence of gas at 3,020 metres depth from the surface at Srikail while drilling an exploratory well there in a major boost to resolve the country's mounting energy crisis," Bapex Managing Director Mortuza Ahmad Faruque told the FE Friday.
He was optimistic about the presence of another gas layer at around 2900 metres depth from the surface at Srikail.
There could be a cumulative 40 metres gas layer in two zones, said Faruque, also a noted geologist of Bangladesh.
Gas is now flowing from the well on a test basis at around 1,900 psi, he said.
The new field is of a medium size, said Mr Faruque. The recoverable reserve of Srikail gas field might be around 300 billion cubic feet (Bcf), he said.
Additional reserve could be found by drilling new wells and carrying out 3D survey, Faruque said. The 3D survey would be conducted in October next, he said.
He expressed the hope that around 30 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas could be produced daily from the well from December next on completion of the laying of necessary pipeline and establishment of a process plant.
Bapex -- a subsidiary of the state-owned Petrobangla -- initiated drilling the exploration well on May 5, 2012 and continued until June 30, 2012, he said.
Exploration well at Srikail has cost the Bapex Tk 810 million ($ 9.81 million), Faruque said. Gas discovery at Srikail is Bapex's fourth success of finding new gas in its past 13 years of operation since 1989.
Bapex has so far drilled six exploratory wells and found gas in four wells meaning that its successful ratio is 3:2, Faruque said.
"This is a piece of very good news for the country, especially when it is struggling to meet the mounting gas demand," he said.
He expressed hope that the energy-starved Chittagong region, where majority of the country's heavy industries are located, will get the new gas from Srikail.
Earlier in August 2011 Bapex discovered a new gas field at Sundalpur, some 200 km off the capital.
Gas production from Sundalpur gas field started from March 2012 at around 10 mmcfd.
Bapex had drilled an exploration well at Srikail field in 2004 but could not discover commercially viable gas then, he said.
The new Srikail gas field is the country's 25th discovered gas field, Faruque said.
But gas production is limited to 20 gas fields, he added.
Bangladesh's overall gas production is now around 2.15 Bcf per day against the demand for over 2.7-3.0 Bcf per day.
Bapex's natural gas production is now hovering around 76 mmcfd from five producing gas fields, which is 3.53 per cent of the country's total output.
The country's economy has been growing at an average 6.0 per cent a year since 2003, outpacing energy supply.
This has forced Petrobangla to suspend new gas connections to industries since June 2009 and ration supplies to gas-guzzling fertiliser and power plants.
From May 2012 Petrobangla has started providing new gas connections to industries but to a limited scale.
Piped gas connections to households have remained suspended since July 2010 by the government to cope with the mounting gas demand.
Bangladesh has also moved to importing LNG (liquefied natural gas) for the first time to meet the gas demand.