The production of natural gas from the newly discovered Srikail East-1 onshore structure is expected to start from December this year.
State-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) discovered commercially viable gas at Srikail East-1, some seven kilometres away from the current operational Srikail gas field, in March last.
At present, a pipeline is being constructed at Pakhjipur village of Bangora in Cumilla district to bring this gas to the national gas grid, a senior Bapex official said.
Land acquisition and road construction is also going on in this regard, he added.
Per day, around 12 million cubic feet (mmcfd) of natural gas can be added to the national gas grid once the new gas well initiates commercial operation in December.
Bapex has estimated that the well may have around 70 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas.
There could be a cumulative 16 metres of gas layer upto 3,071 meters depth at the new gas structure.
Bapex drilled some 3,482 meters from the surface to discover the new gas structure.
Country’s overall natural gas output is currently hovering around 3,160 mmcfd. Of the total output, Bapex is supplying around 75 mmcfd of gas from its eight operational gas fields against their cumulative production capacity of 145 mmcfd.
azizjst@yahoo.com