Petrobangla plans enhancing domestic gas production

State-owned oil, gas and mineral company Petrobangla has decided to scale up gas production from this year until 2025 due to the surge in the price of imported liquefied natural gas in the international spot market.

The company is planning to raise 618 million standard cubic feet per day (MMCFD) gas from 46 wells between 2022 and 2025, respectively.

Among the wells, 17 are being explored, 12 are developmental and 17 are workovers, respectively.

Petrobangla Chairman Nazmul Ahsan told the Business Insider Bangladesh, “During this crisis, if the planned initiative is implemented properly, there would be no gas crisis in the country”.

Moreover, he said Petrobangla has some long-term plans to tackle any unforeseen situations that Bangladesh is experiencing now.

At present, gas companies – Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX), Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BGFCL) and Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) - are producing 863 million standard cubic feet of methane per day (MMCFD).

However, as per the Petrobangla planning, a total of 46 gas wells will be developed by 2025 which will add some 618 MMCFD of gas to the national grid.

Now, BAPEX is feeding 143 MMCFD to the national grid. Following the projection, in 2022, BAPEX will drill five wells and the production would be around 57 MMCFD. In the next year, the production would be raised to 68 MMCFD.

In 2024, the company will drill one fresh well to take the production to 76 MMCFD. And, in the following year, the number of drilling wells will be four, while the production would be 80 MMCFD.

The BGFCL is contributing 616 MMCFD to the national grid, at present. As per the projection, it will drill four wells in 2023 and the production is estimated to be at 66 MMCFD. In the second year (2024), it will drill four more wells like the previous year and the production would be 52 MMCFD.

In 2025, it will drill four wells and the production is estimated to be at 55 MMCFD.

The SGFL is now delivering 104 MMCFD and it will drill one well this year to produce 5 MMCFD gas.

In 2023, it will drill some 6 wells that will lead the gas production to 83 MMCFD. The level of production is estimated to be 48 MMCFD with four more gas well being drilled in the next year. And, in the last year, the company will drill three more wells and the production would be 28 MMCFD.