Natural gas found in new layer at Srikail field

FE Team | Published: August 01, 2012 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
Bangladesh's lone oil and gas exploration company - BAPEX, has found natural gas in a new layer in the already discovered gas field at Srikail of Comilla, some 100 kilometres off the capital, BAPEX Managing Director Mortuza Ahmad Faruque said Tuesday.
"We got natural gas while drilling there Monday night," he said.
The new gas layer is located at around 2,900 metres depth from the surface at Srikail, said the top brass of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX).
BAPEX earlier found commercially viable natural gas reserve at 3,020 metres depth in the same field on July 13.
There could be a cumulative 40 metres gas layer in two zones, he said.
The new field is of a medium size and the recoverable reserve at Srikail gas field might be around 300 billion cubic feet (Bcf), Faruque said.
Additional reserve could be found by drilling new wells and carrying out 3D survey, he added.
Faruque 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.
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.
Energy-starved Chittagong region, where majority of the country's heavy industries are located, will get the new gas from Srikail, he hoped.
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 in March, 2012.
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 2,230 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) against the demand for over 2,700-3,000 mmcfd.
BAPEX's natural gas production is now hovering around 88 mmcfd from five producing gas fields, which is around 3.50 per cent of the country's total output.