Survey at Dighipara site to assess coal reserve soon
Tuesday, 26 October 2010
FE Report
The state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla will conduct survey at the Dighipara coalmine site in next dry season to determine actual reserves and develop the structure to meet growing demand of the proposed thermal power plants, officials said Saturday.
The energy division has recently asked the Petrobangla to assess commercial viability of the Dighipara coalmine in the northern Bangladesh as the government has decided to reduce its dependency on depleting natural gas for generating electricity.
"We have been negotiating with the GSB (Geological Survey of Bangladesh) and energy exploration company BAPEX to conduct the two-dimensional survey," a senior Petrobangla official told the FE.
As our Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd. is already working, we want to go for a partnership venture with the state-owned energy explorers for conducting the proposed survey and feasibility studies at Dighipara, he said.
We are hopeful the study would begin by December this year and end within second quarter of the next year, he added.
The Petrobangla official said actual reserve, dispersion of the coal structures and its depth at Dighipara mine in Dinajpur would be determined by the study.
On the basis of data and information to be obtained from the study, we would drill an exploratory well before going to coal extraction process, he added.
Despite discovery of five highly-potential coal structures in Bangladesh, the government earlier advised the Petrobangla to wait until the coal policy is finalised.
But as the energy supply situation in the country getting worse, the energy division has now asked the state-owned energy corporation to conduct the study to explore and extract coals from the untouched but prospective Dighipara mine.
The Power Development Board (PDB) has decided to set up coal-fired power stations. It had signed a deal with the Indian power producer NTPC on August 30 last to set up a total of 2640-megawatt power stations in Chittagong and Khulna to meet the growing energy demand.
Dighipara is one of the five identified coal zones in the country where geologists earlier confirmed a probable reserve of nearly 200 million tonnes of high quality Bituminous coal.
An energy ministry official said since the country's potential natural gas reserve was depleting fast their best option at this moment was coal for generating power.
"We have had plan to utilise the Dighipara coal for generating power to meet country's energy crisis," he said.
According to Petrobangla, there are seven structures in the Dighipara coalmine. The thickness of coal structure is 72 metre and the depth of the pit is 120 to 400 metres.
Five coal fields have so far been discovered in the country with an estimated total reserve of more than 2,700 million tonnes. The energy value of the country's current coal reserve is almost twice the value of its existing natural gas reserve, geologists said.
The Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL), a state-owned company, is operating at the country's lone coal production project at Barapukuria mine in Dinajpur and started production in full swing since September 2005.
The state-owned energy corporation Petrobangla will conduct survey at the Dighipara coalmine site in next dry season to determine actual reserves and develop the structure to meet growing demand of the proposed thermal power plants, officials said Saturday.
The energy division has recently asked the Petrobangla to assess commercial viability of the Dighipara coalmine in the northern Bangladesh as the government has decided to reduce its dependency on depleting natural gas for generating electricity.
"We have been negotiating with the GSB (Geological Survey of Bangladesh) and energy exploration company BAPEX to conduct the two-dimensional survey," a senior Petrobangla official told the FE.
As our Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd. is already working, we want to go for a partnership venture with the state-owned energy explorers for conducting the proposed survey and feasibility studies at Dighipara, he said.
We are hopeful the study would begin by December this year and end within second quarter of the next year, he added.
The Petrobangla official said actual reserve, dispersion of the coal structures and its depth at Dighipara mine in Dinajpur would be determined by the study.
On the basis of data and information to be obtained from the study, we would drill an exploratory well before going to coal extraction process, he added.
Despite discovery of five highly-potential coal structures in Bangladesh, the government earlier advised the Petrobangla to wait until the coal policy is finalised.
But as the energy supply situation in the country getting worse, the energy division has now asked the state-owned energy corporation to conduct the study to explore and extract coals from the untouched but prospective Dighipara mine.
The Power Development Board (PDB) has decided to set up coal-fired power stations. It had signed a deal with the Indian power producer NTPC on August 30 last to set up a total of 2640-megawatt power stations in Chittagong and Khulna to meet the growing energy demand.
Dighipara is one of the five identified coal zones in the country where geologists earlier confirmed a probable reserve of nearly 200 million tonnes of high quality Bituminous coal.
An energy ministry official said since the country's potential natural gas reserve was depleting fast their best option at this moment was coal for generating power.
"We have had plan to utilise the Dighipara coal for generating power to meet country's energy crisis," he said.
According to Petrobangla, there are seven structures in the Dighipara coalmine. The thickness of coal structure is 72 metre and the depth of the pit is 120 to 400 metres.
Five coal fields have so far been discovered in the country with an estimated total reserve of more than 2,700 million tonnes. The energy value of the country's current coal reserve is almost twice the value of its existing natural gas reserve, geologists said.
The Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL), a state-owned company, is operating at the country's lone coal production project at Barapukuria mine in Dinajpur and started production in full swing since September 2005.