Gas output target revised downward

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M Azizur Rahman The state-owned Petrobangla has revised down the country's natural gas output projection to 3.692 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day by December 2015, a senior Petrobangla official said Thursday. Two years back, the organisation had envisioned a higher output of 3.91 Bcf per day by 2013 with implementation of several major projects in mind, he said. But Petrobangla recently revised the outlook downward, showing gas output rising by 297 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) to 2.557 Bcf per day by the end of this calendar year from the existing production of around 2.26 Bcf per day. The country's natural gas output increased only by 110 mmcfd to 2.26 Bcf per day until June 2013 from 2.15 Bcf per day in June 2012, Petrobangla data revealed. "We could not increase natural gas supply from the state-owned gas-fields in line with our initial target, resulting in less than expected natural gas output," the Petrobangla official said. The US-based Chevron has delayed its gas supply augmentation plan to 2014 from the previous planning of 2013, he said. Besides, Russian Gazprom will not be able to complete its 10-well drilling programme by December 2013 as expected earlier. The country's move to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) by December 2013 also faltered, as it failed to select any successful bidder out of four short-listed global firms to build a floating LNG terminal, he added. Besides, natural gas output from the country's sole operational offshore Sangu gas-well decreased by some 22 mmcfd to the current level of around 8.0 mmcfd from 30 mmcfd in June 2012, said officials. Petrobangla has set a revised target of increasing 297 mmcfd of natural gas in the next six months until December 2013. Of which, 152 mmcfd of gas will be added from 15 different state-owned onshore gas-wells, 130 mmcfd by Russian Gazprom from five different wells, and the remaining 15 mmcfd from Tullow-operated Bangora gas-field. According to the plan, Petrobangla will be able to increase natural gas output by 485 mmcfd in 2014, enhancing the country's overall natural gas output to 3.042 Bcf per day. Chevron is expected to add some 300 mmcfd of gas from its Bibiyana gas-field and Gazprom some 120 mmcfd. The remaining 65 mmcfd of gas will be added from different state-owned gas-fields, it noted. Petrobangla has planned to increase natural gas output by 650 mmcfd in 2015, of which 500 mmcfd has been earmarked as LNG and the remaining 150 mmcfd from different state-owned onshore gas-wells. The growing volume of natural gas will be required for industries, power plants, fertiliser factories, households and compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations, a Petrobangla official said. Finance Minister A M A Muhith in his budget speech for the next fiscal year (2013-14) has proposed to increase allocation for energy sector by 41.28 per cent to Tk 22.91 billion (US$294 million) from Tk 16.14 billion of the previous fiscal to carry out various development activities. Bangladesh is eyeing to allocate more funds in the coming years too to implement different programmes to ramp up its overall natural gas output. The country's natural gas production is currently hovering around 2.26 Bcf per day against the demand for 2.7-3 Bcf per day.