Gas reserve falls despite two new fields being on stream

M Azizur Rahman Country has an estimated 16.36 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of recoverable gas reserve in its 25 discovered fields as of January 2013, down by 1.39 per cent from the previous year's estimated reserve, energy ministry data revealed. The country had 16.59 Tcf of recoverable gas reserve in its 23 discovered gas fields as of January 2012, the latest data showed. During the past one year from January 2012 to January 2013, Bangladesh discovered two onshore gas fields -- Sundalpur and Srikail -- with an estimated recoverable gas reserves of 32.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) and 161 Bcf respectively. Bangladesh's lone oil and gas exploration company -- Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) -- discovered both the fields that have already started producing gas. Srikail and Sundalpur gas fields are now supplying around 25.5 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) and 10 mmcfd of gas to the national gas grid respectively, a senior official of the state-owned Petrobangla said. Of the total gas reserve of 16.36 Tcf, 16.02 Tcf of reserves are in 24 onshore gas fields while the remaining 92 Bcf lay in the Australian Santos-operated offshore Sangu gas field. Of the 20 gas fields now under production, 15 are state-owned and five operated by international oil companies. According to available data, 10.915 Tcf of natural gas has been recovered from the fields until December last year for domestic consumption especially in power plants, fertiliser factories, tea estates, compressed natural gas (CNG) filling stations and households for cooking. Bangladesh first discovered commercially viable natural gas in the northeastern Sylhet region in 1955. The country currently meets 73 per cent of its total energy requirements out of natural gas. Natural gas contributed 75 per cent to the country's total primary energy requirements until January 2012. According to the latest data, the Chevron-operated Bibiyana field has the highest recoverable gas reserves as of January, at 4.486 Tcf, followed by the state-run Titas gas field at 2.829 Tcf. The state-run Kailastila, Rashidpur, Habiganj and Bakhrabad fields are estimated to hold 2.182 Tcf, 1.923 Tcf, 702 Bcf and 496 Bcf of recoverable reserves, respectively. Chevron's Jalalabad field has 462 Bcf, the state-owned Chhatak field has 447 Bcf and the UK-based Tullow-operated Bangora field -- 310 Bcf, energy ministry data revealed. In November 2011, the state-owned Hydrocarbon Unit, said that the country has an estimated 28.2 Tcf of recoverable gas reserves, up by 38 per cent from a 2003 estimate of 20.5 Tcf. At the time, Anwar H. Khan, Director General of Hydrocarbon Unit said that the reserves were enough to meet local demand for the next 30 years. The energy ministry, however, was more conservative to calculate the country's natural gas reserve, a senior official of the Energy Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, said. Bangladesh's natural gas production is currently hovering around 2.26 Bcf per day, compared to demand of more than 2.7 Bcf per day. The country's economy has been growing at an average rate of 6.0 per cent a year since 2003, outpacing energy supply, leading to widespread power outages and squeezing industrial output.