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. Read: Dhaka’s air quality still 'unhealthy', 2nd most polluted in the world this morning  “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. Read: New executive committee of BSFA pays homage to Bangabandhu  “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. Read more: Nasrul Hamid seeks ADB's help to create regional power market

Ilisha-1 in Bhola district was announced to be the 29th gas field of Bangladesh where substantial gas was found recently. “We believe, Ilisha-1 has a reserve of 200 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas. The entire Bhola area, including this one, has a reserve of 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas,” State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told reporters today (May 22, 2023) during a briefing at his Dhaka residence while formally announcing the discovery of the gas field. He said this is great news for the people of the country. Also Read: 3 strikes for Ilisha-1: another drill test finds gas Ilisha-1 is located in an union in Bhola district, about 182 km from the capital city Dhaka. On March 8 this year, Ilisha-1 excavation started in the Maler Hat area of Ilisha union under Bhola Sadar upazila and the drilling was completed successfully on April 24 through the Drill Stem Test in three levels at a depth of 3,475 metres. The state minister said earlier that gas was found in different wells under Bhola north and Bhola south structures. He said a plan is being prepared to bring gas from the Bhola area to Dhaka through a pipeline where many industries are facing a nagging gas shortage. Read more: Chevron inks deals to dig more wells at expanded Bibiyana gas field A pre-feasibility was conducted and now work is in progress for conducting a feasibility study on the issue, he noted. Nasrul Hamid said it will take about 3 years to bring the gas from Bhola to Dhaka through a pipeline. Initially, he said, a private company has signed a contract to bring a total of 25 mmcfd gas from Bhola through a big trailer. Primarily, it will start with 5 mmcfd. He informed that the government has a plan to create a ring-fence of pipeline covering Bhola, Barishal and Dhaka to use the gas for this region while another ring-fence will be created covering the districts in Dhaka, Sylhet and others. Read more: 2nd phase of directional drilling at Srikail North Gas field starts He said the commercial value of the gas in Bhola will be Tk 6500 crore if calculated in local value and Tk 26000 crore in the value of gas being imported. Nasrul Hamid said the Ilisha-1 gas field’s discovery was announced after completion of necessary drilling and other works. Currently, about 2300 mmcfd gas is being produced from 22 gas fields in the country, while about 700 mmcfd gas is being imported to meet the demand of about 4000 mmcfd, leaving a deficit of about 1000 mmcfd. Apart from Ilisha-1, two Bhola gas fields have around 200 mmcf production capacity, while the production hovers between 80-85 mmcf. Read more: China’s Sinopec to drill for gas at Well No-10 of Sylhet Gas Field Therefore, around 120 mmcf surplus capacity remains unused in the eight wells of the Shahbazpur and Bhola gas fields. Due to the lack of pipeline and transmission facilities, the government of Bangladesh was unable to supply the surplus gas from the Bhola field to energy-hungry industrial zones in Dhaka and elsewhere.

More reserves of gas have been found in Bangladesh's Bhola North-2 gas field. The Bangladesh Ministry of Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources in a press release said that new gas was found from an appraisal well. It mentioned that the drilling works started at the Bhola North -2 Gas Filed on December 5 last year and ended on January 17 this year after reaching 3,428 metre depth to the underground ground. “Today (Monday, January 23, 2023) the discovery was made after completion of the Drill-Stem Testing (DST).” Read More: Bill placed in JS to pave a way for govt to adjust gas, electricity without public hearing The DST in exploration wells is the last step of oil and gas exploration. “The actual amount of gas production will be determined after completion of the final production testing. But Bapex is hopeful that the field would produce 20 MMCF per day,” said the release. 

Petrobangla has begun drilling a development well of Shahbazpur Gas Field in the southern district of Bhola. Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom was appointed as the contractor for drilling the Tagbi-1 well. The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex), a subsidiary of Petrobangla, appointed Gazprom as a part of the government's initiative to increase domestic production amid a volatile global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market. Also read: US companies encouraged for oil, gas exploration in Bangladesh's offshore Mahbub Hossain, senior secretary at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, inaugurated the drilling activity Friday. Petrobangla Chair Nazmul Ahsan was present. "The Tagbi-1 drilling initiative is part of Petrobangla's plan to dig 46 wells across the country by 2025," Nazmul told UNB. Gazprom will drill the development well up to a 3,500-metre depth. After the completion of drilling, the well is expected to produce 20-25 million cubic feet (mmcft) of gas daily. Also read: Fuel, natural gas price hikes to have domino effect on economy: DCCI Under the project, two more exploratory wells will be drilled in Ilisha-1 and Bhola North-2, Nazmul said. Shahbazpur Gas Field was discovered by Bapex in 1995. Gas production from the field started in May 2009.

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Monday formally announced Zakiganj as the country 28th gas field having 68 billion cubic feet of gas reserve. The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) made the discovery in June last, but refrained from making any formal announcement as it was assessing the prospects of viable recovery in recovering gas from the drilled well at Ananadapur village in Zakiganj upazila, Sylhet. Read: BAPEX cautiously optimistic as it tests new well at Zakiganj The formal announcement on the new gas discovery came at a webinar, organized by Energy and Mineral Resources Division to observe August 9 as National Energy Security Day marking the historic decision of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to take over 5 gas fields in Sylhet region from multinational Shell Oil Company in 1975.      The state minister said the new gas field has a possible reserve of 68 billion cubic feet of gas to be extractable in next 12-13 years at 10 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD). “The value of the entire reserve at the new gas field would be Tk 1,276 crore,” he added, saying that a 3D survey will be conducted to find the accurate position of the fossil fuel in the virgin field. So far, 27 gas fields have been discovered in the country. The proven reserves in these gas fields are 21.4 TCF, with six more TCF potential reserves. Of this, about 18 TCF has been taken. There are only three TCFs left as proven stocks, and potential reserves are likely to be seven more TSFs. Read: BAPEX discovers 4-layer gas in new part of Haripur

Russian oil major Gazprom obtained a contract for drilling 3 wells at Bhola gas field at a contract value of Tk 648.39 crore (equivalent to about $77.184 million). Cabinet Committee on Public Purchase in a meeting on Thursday approved a proposal of the stature-owned Petrobangla in this regard to award the contract to the Russian firm to do the job on a turnkey basis. Another 4 procurement proposals from different ministries also received the nod of the committee in the meeting presided over by Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.   Also read: Haripur Gas field: Drilling begins in 9th well The Energy and Mineral  Resources Division placed the Petrobangla's unsolicited proposal, based on Speedy Supply of Power and Energy Supply (Special Act) 2010, to the Cabinet Body for approval. It means, the Russian firm was selected for the project through negotiation and without any competitive bidding process. Gazprom will take over the drilling works from the Petrobangla’s subsidiary Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) which discovered the Bhola gas field.   Mustafa Kamal said the Gazprom was picked up for the project since it is a reputed international firm having vast experience in this field. Earlier, Gazprom had drilled a number of wells at different gas fields to enhance gas production. But many energy experts were critical over the contract value of the works of the Russian firm. The Cabinet committee approved a proposal of the Roads and Highways Department to appoint Joint Venture of (1) SMEC International Pty Ltd, Australia (2) Swedish National Road Consulting AB, Sweden, (3) ACE Consultants Ltd., Bangladesh and (4) BCL Associates Ltd., Bangladesh at a cost of Tk 46.92 crore for its project - Installation of Excel Load Control Centre at the important points of highways. A proposal of Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) received the nod of the committee to award a Tk 658.40 crore contract on G-to-G basis to Thales of France to set up radar system including CNS-ATM (Communications, Navigation and Surveillance-Air Traffic Management) at Shahjalal International Airport. The Cabinet body also approved a proposal of the Water Resources Ministry to award Tk 367.28 crore contract to Khulna Shipyard Limited for 6.3 km river bank protection and 14.750 km dredging works of Arial Kha River in Madaripur district.