The state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company after 15 years has finally discovered a new gas-field located at Sundulpur in Companyganj upazila under Noakhali district.
Bapex, which is a subsidiary of the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, Petrobangla, discovered the Saldanadi gas-field in 1996 in Brahmanbaria.
The latest discovery was announced at a press briefing on Wednesday by Petrobangla's chairman Hossain Monsur, Bapex's managing director Mortuza Ahmad Faruque and other high officials.
Monsur, however, said that the technicians would monitor the pressure of gas and some other parameters for a few more days.
He told the reporters that gas started spewing through pipeline of the exploration well from a five-metre-thick layer at a depth of about 1,400 metres at 8am on Wednesday.
Though he said nothing about the amount of the gas-field's reserve, Monsur hoped that from next March Bapex would be able to supply 10-12 million cubic feet of gas a day to the nearest gas transmission and distribution network at Maijdi in Noakhali.
'In the meantime, Bapex will set up a gas separator, connect the pipeline and build other infrastructure,' he added.
Mortuza claimed that the gas produced from the newly discovered field would help to meet Chittagong's demand.
Monsur said that Bapex would conduct three-dimensional seismic surveys of the area for finding other potential gas-laden sand layers that are deeper than the newly discovered layer.
Bapex will drill a number of gas production wells in accordance with the report of the seismic survey.
Bapex's technicians did not find gas in the other two layers that lie at the depth of 3,196-3,220 metres and 3,118-3,121 metres in Sundulpur area which is under Hydrocarbon Block-15.
The company took eight months to discover the fruitful layer after it started drilling the exploration well at Sundulpur. The project cost was estimated to be Tk 73.76 crore.
Bapex, however, had to spend about two and half a month to recover the pipes and tools from a depth of about three kilometres as the pipes on April 14 got jammed when it was drilling the exploration well.
During the present government's regime, two exploration wells were drilled — one by Bapex at Sundulpur and other by international oil company Chevron at Charkajal in Patuakhali district in Hydrocarbon Block-7.
Chevron did not found gas in the well it drilled this year and so relinquished the block to Petrobangla.
In 2009, Bapex conducted 200 line-kilometre seismic surveys over the region before finding the drilling location for its exploration well.
Source : New Age
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