Petrobangla plans to up gas supply
Manjurul Ahsan
The state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation, or Petrobangla, hopes to increase its capacity to supply 473 mmcfd of gas more than the estimated demand by the next year.
Petrobangla has planned to develop its capacity to supply 3,814 mmcfd of gas by 2013 which by 2015 will be increased to 4,328 mmcfd against an estimated demand for about 3,746 mmcfd.
Petrobangla’s production augmentation plan for the next four years proposed an increase in gas extraction by more than 1,200 mmcfd by US oil company Chevron, 545 mmcfd by three state-run gas production companies and 500 mmcfd more from imported liquefied natural gas.
Petrobangla in its plan did not consider the possible
depleting volume of gas production in fields under both the public sector and international companies.
The Petrobangla chairman, Hossain Monsur, however, brushed aside any possibility for a decline although production has decreased by 120 mmcfd in three years.
The plan considers that Chevron, which operates three gas fields under the production sharing contract, will be providing around 54 per cent of the additional gas while three state-run gas production companies, including Bapex, will provide the remaining amount.
Chevron is expected to increase gas production by 360 mmcfd by 2013 from the Bibiyana field by drilling six more wells, 540 mmcfd by 2013 and 500 mmcfd by 2015 from the Bibiyana, Moulvibazar and Jalalabad fields.
Chevron now supplies 980 mmcfd of gas to the national grid of which around 760 mmcfd is from Bibiyana alone.
According to the plan, Chevron will need to increase gas extraction to around 1,100 mmcfd from the Bibiyana field by 2015.
A high Petrobangla official, however, expressed his concerns about the excess gas extraction from the Bibiyana field.
‘This high rate of gas production from Bibiyana may destroy the country’s second largest gas structure,’ he said.
Petrobangla subsidiaries Bangladesh Gas Field Company, Sylhet Gas Field Company and Bapex will have 26 gas wells drilled. Bapex will drill 20 wells and Russian gas corporation Gazprom will drill others in four years.
In 2012, Bapex will drill six gas production wells — one each in Salda Nadi and Rashidpur gas fields and two each in Titas and Shahbajpur gas fields — to increase gas supply by 130 mmcfd to the national grid.
Petrobangla will also have six gas wells drilled — four in Titas and two in Rashidpur gas field — by Gazprom by this year to increase the gas supply although Petrobangla has not yet signed any deal with Gazprom for the task.
In 2013, Bapex will drill five exploration and
production wells in Srikile, Sunetra, Mobarakpur, Kapasia and Bakhrabad
gas fields to add 100 mmcfd and in the next year, it will drill nine more production wells in Titas, Sylhet, Kailashtilla and Rashidpur gas fields for another
180 mmcfd gas to the national grid.
Bangladesh has been facing a gas shortage of 500 mmcfd for a few years, obstructing power generation and industrial production.
Petrobangla now supplies around 2,050 mmcfd gas to power plants, industries and domestic burners.
