Chevron\\\'s Bibiyana gas output gets another boost

The gas production by US oil giant Chevron from Bibiyana field has again got a boost just after three months of previous increase, officials said, raising the supply of the fuel in Bangladesh's energy grid.
"We augmented officially last week Bibiyana's production capacity by 20 per cent to 1,200 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from the previous 1,000mmcfd output," a senior Petrobangla official told the FE Saturday.
He said the gas-production capacity of Bibiyana was enhanced in keeping with the field's new reserve estimation.
The state-owned petroleum corporation, Petrobangla, had ramped up Bibiyana's official production capacity 29.87 per cent to 1,000mmcfd from the previous 770mmcfd output in March this year.
A company-insider said Chevron Bangladesh has started supplying additional gas from the field with the execution of its US$500 million Bibiyana Expansion Project.
Chevron Corporation announced in October last year that its Bangladesh subsidiary commenced natural gas production from the expanded Bibiyana project.
Petrobangla at the time permitted Chevron to produce natural gas by up to 1,200mmcfd, assessing a new report submitted by the company through estimating an additional natural gas reserve of around 1.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).
DeGolyer and MacNaughton carried out the reserve-estimating task on Chevron's behalf, and by the estimation, Bibiyana's reserve will stand at around 7 Tcf, said the official.
Bibiyana is currently highest-producing gas-field of the country and supplying around 1,192mmcfd gas from 22 of its wells in production, which is 44.49 per cent of country's overall natural gas output, according to Petrobangla statistics as on June 11, 2015.
It was supplying on an average around 1,000mmcfd gas in January 2015 and around 900mmcfd in October 2014.
Chevron started supplying natural gas commercially from Bibiyana in March 2007 with an initial production capacity of 250mmcfd after an initial investment of $200 million.
Discovered in 1998, the Bibiyana field was initially estimated to have 2.4Tcf proven recoverable gas. But follow-up studies and development of this field have confirmed that the field was much larger than the initial assessment.
Chevron sources said the first assessment of the field's size was conducted in 2000 by DeGolyer & MacNaughton.
In 2007, Chevron's expert Ryder Scott conducted a new assessment that included additional data from 12 wells and a 3D seismic survey.
Again, in September 2009, DeGolyer & MacNaughton gave a second report to Petrobangla, which scaled up Bibiyana's proven gas reserve to 4.42Tcf -- almost double from the previous assessment.
The report also said there is a high possibility of hitting up to 5.76Tcf gas in the field, the Petrobangla source said.
Chevron earlier in 2012, built a compression station in the gas-transmission pipeline at Muchai, which helped in increasing natural gas output by 200mmcfd after raising pressure in gas flow from 900 per square inch (psi) to 1,100 psi, said sources.
Chevron Bangladesh is currently the largest producer of natural gas in the country, with the natural gas output of around 1,492mmcfd from three of its onshore gas fields -- Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulavi Bazar -- located in blocks 12, 13 and 14, respectively, in the northeastern Sylhet region.
The volume, according to Petrobangla data, accounts for around 55.69 per cent of the country's total gas supply.
mazizur.rahman@outlook.com