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.

State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Thursday (November 03, 2022) announced a new structure of 239 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas from the exploration well No-Togbi-1 under the Bhola gas field. “But this will take one-and-a-half to two years to start producing gas from the well and supply it to the national gas network”, he told reporters while sharing the “good news” at a press briefing at his ministry conference room on Thursday. “We need to build some necessary infrastructures including a processing plant to get this gas available for consumption”, he added. “This is the good news of relief amid ongoing gas crisis… this well can produce 20 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) over 30-31 years”, he said. read more: Can’t import 400 MMCFD gas as per businessmen’s demand: Energy Advisor He noted that the entire gas will have the value of Tk 8000 crore considering the average retail price of the local gas. Nasrul informed that two more wells will be drilled in Shahbazpur upazila in the Bhola gas field while Petrobangla has a plan to drill 46 wells across the country through Bapex, Sylhet Gas field Company Limited and Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BGFCL). The US energy company Chevron will also conduct drillings in its extended area of the Bibiyana gas field. Read more: Low-pressure problem in gas supply to industries to be resolved: Nasrul “We hope, once these 46 wells will be drilled, some 600-700 MMCFD gas will be added to the national gas grid by 2025”, he said adding that in the meantime some gas fields will decline production by 200 MMCFD. Currently, the state minister said that the country’s daily gas production is 2,300 MMCFD from different gas fields against a demand of 3,400 MMCFD. Alongside the local gas production, some 400 MMCFD gas is being imported under long-term contract. Responding to a question on the government’s move for increasing gas supply, Nasrul said that the government had to suspend import of gas from the international spot market due to excessive price hike. Read More: Gas supply to remain suspended in some Dhaka areas including Gulshan, Banani for 11 hours “If the government imports one ship of gas, it costs Tk 1500 crore while it has to sell it at Tk 58 crore. There is a huge gap between imported price and selling price”, he said the government cannot afford it without raising prices. He said the government did not raise the price considering its impacts. “That’s why we cannot use gas to generate electricity that leads to load shedding,” he said. “We hope, from the current month, the extent of load shedding will decrease. We’re planning to improve the situation from next February through some external management”, he said. Read More: “Assurance of getting oil, gas from India big accomplishment of recent visit” He said gas demand for industries increased for which the industrial sector of Bangladesh is experiencing a crisis. But supply remains the same as that was in the previous year.

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.