The country is currently passing through a 'lean' period in terms of oil and natural gas exploration due to dearth in drilling activities by the hydrocarbon exploration firms.
This is likely to result in a major setback to the country's future energy security, said officials.
They said neither the state-run oil and gas exploration company nor the international oil companies (IOCs) are now involved in drilling natural gas wells to augment production.
Not a single well is now being drilled by the companies either onshore or offshore, which was rare over the past several years' operation in energy sector, they added.
The country's lone oil and gas exploration company -- Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) - is now changing drilling direction at Mobarakpur gas-field. It will initiate drilling in a new phase in search of new gas discovery, a senior Bapex official told the FE Monday.
Although no drilling is now taking place at Mobarakpur, this is the only drilling related job that is going on in the country, said sources.
Bapex has already drilled around 4,100 metres at Mobarakpur gas-field before going to a new drilling phase.
One of its newly purchased rigs has been stuck for around a couple of months after drilling some 2,640 meters at Salda-4 gas well.
Bapex is likely to remain idle at least until July as it has no drilling job in hand, said Bapex officials.
This is the first time in the last five years that Bapex will have to sit idle due to lack of drilling programme.
Officials alleged that the government's apathy to assign the state-run hydrocarbon exploration company with new drilling jobs over the past couple of years has resulted in the lean period for Bapex.
Bapex purchased three new drilling rigs during the period 2010-2013 at a cost of around Tk 6.0 billion.
With the existing manpower and equipment support, Bapex has the capacity to carry out drilling at three fields at a time, he also said.
Although several IOCs are operating in the country no drilling is now being carried out by them.
US oil and gas giant Chevron last year completed drilling of over a dozen new gas wells to augment natural gas production by around 300 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).
Chevron Bangladesh currently does not have any drilling activities in hand.
The US firm is operational in three onshore gas blocks -12, 13 and 14 - under production sharing contracts (PSCs) with the government and state-run Petrobangla.
Singapore's KrisEnergy, which bought Irish Tullow's stakes to become the operator of Block 9, does not have any drilling job in hand.
Operation of Canadian Niko Resources has long been suspended following row over gas bill payments and compensation claims over two consecutive gas field blowouts.
The country does not have any drilling programme in offshore blocks as the newly contracted IOCs - a joint venture (JV) of Australian Santos and KrisEnergy has just completed 2D seismic survey and another JV of Indian ONGC and Oil India Ltd is preparing to carry out seismic survey in shallow water offshore blocks.
When contacted, Petrobangla chairman Ishtiaque Ahmad acknowledged the 'dearth' in well drilling activities in the country.
He hoped that drilling of new wells would pick up again. Professor Nurul Islam of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) said the country should continue drilling programmes to ensure future energy security.
Country's overall natural gas production is currently hovering around 2,700 mmcfd against the demand for over 3,000 mmcfd.
The entire natural gas production comes from onshore gas fields.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com
Country’s future energy security threatened
M Azizur Rahman | Published: May 26, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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