Gas production from Semutang starts next week

FE Report Gas production from a new field - Semutang - will start next week as part of the government's moves to ramp up the country's overall gas output and meet the mounting demand, Petrobangla Chairman Dr Hussain Monsur Tuesday said. He said Semutang gas-field, located in Khagrachhari, will supply around 20 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of gas to Chittagong. This will be the first operating gas-field in the CHT region, and 20th in the country. Bangladesh now has 79 producing gas-wells in 19 fields out of the 23 discovered fields. The Semutang gas-field was discovered in 1969 by the then Oil and Gas Development Corporation of Pakistan. The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd, or Bapex, has recently developed it by spending Taka 650 million (US$ 8.55 million). Petrobangla's subsidiary Karnaphuli Gas Distribution Company Ltd (KGDCL) will supply gas from the field to the clients in Chittagong. The volume of total recoverable gas in the Semutang field is around 150 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day, said a Bapex official. The country's overall gas production is now hovering around 2,000 mmcfd against the demand for over 2,500 mmcfd. As on November 28, 2011 the state-owned gas-fields produced an aggregated 959 mmcfd of gas, or 47.31 per cent of the total output. The gas-fields operated by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) produced the remaining 1,068 mmcfd of gas, or 56.69 per cent of the output.