Chevron starts seismic survey in block 7

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FHM Humayan Kabir
US oil company Chevron has started seismic survey in potential gas block-7 in southern Bangladesh to determine presence of hydrocarbon structures, officials said.
"Chevron has started the survey to find out exact location of the hydrocarbon structures. The survey will be completed in May next," M Muqtadir Ali, a Petrobangla director, told the FE.
He said Petrobangla had asked the company to survey in a low distance parametre to determine the dispersion of the hydrocarbon structures in the gas block, situated in Barisal, Patuakhali, Jhalakathi and Pirojpur districts.
Mr. Ali said the US oil company would conduct two-dimensional (2D) seismic survey in nearly 450-line kilometres investing US$12 million.
Chevron earlier conducted a survey in block-7, partly covering southern offshore areas, where it found about 0.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of potential gas reserves.
After completion of the survey, the company will drill exploratory wells in the block in fiscal 2011 to determine the site where it will develop wells for gas production, the Petrobangla director said.
"We are hopeful of producing gas from the potential structure as soon as possible," he said.
Amid prevailing gas shortage and the country's growing energy demand, the US oil company took the move to start survey in Block-7 late last year.
The state-owned Petrobangla supplies about 1900-million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) against the demand for over 2100mmcfd.
"If the gas structure is confirmed, it will take some two to three years time to produce gas from the block," said another Petrobangla official.
He said Petrobangla has plans to add gas to the national grid from the potential gas reserves.
Chevron is working in Bangladesh under production sharing contract to extract gas from three blocks including block-7 and supply those to the state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla.