Bangladesh's State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resource Nasrul Hamid has said that each of the companies of the Petrobangla will be given target to drill wells in the gas fields for hydrocarbon exploration and if they fail, the officials concerned will be removed from  their posts.

“Nobody will be speared and no persuasion will be accepted against any failure”, he told a seminar titled: “Gas Demand-Supply Scenario; Scope of Seismic Survey and Enhancement of Drilling Activities to Expedite Hydrocarbon Production” organised by Petrobangla at its auditorium in the city on Thursday (February 15, 2024).

Expressing frustration over the activities of the Petrobangla, he said that there is huge deficiency in the organisation and its subordinate bodies to work as a team.

“They don’t work in a coordinated manner. As a result, sometimes gas is found in a well, but processing plant remains unprepared  to supply the gas to the national grid,” he said.

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“Sometimes it takes 4 years to get gas supply from a well to the national grid,” he added.

He said Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and other entities in power sector have been successful in achieving the goal of 100 percent electricity access as they worked as a team.

The seminar, with Petrobangla chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker in the chair, was also addressed by Energy Secretary Md Nurul Alam.

Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company’s Managing Director Anwarul Islam and Petrobangla’s general manager Meherul Hasan made presentation on the topic of the seminar.

Nasrul Hamid said the Petrobangla planned to drill 48 wells to produce 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) while the country’s demand will go up by 2000 mmcfd.

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“We’re all looking at Petrobangla to see effective results of its plan…, there is huge prospects in the gas sector,” he added.

He said the country has many inefficient captive power plants which efficiency is 20 percent when some new power plants installed with 62 percent efficiency.

“If we can divert gas to those efficient new power plants, power production cost will come down by 70 percent,” he noted.

In the presentation the Petrobangla officials showed that it has planned to drill 100 wells across the country from which 1500 mmcfd gas will be produced by 2027 when gas demand will go up to 6000 mmcfd.

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