News Details

Bapex starts drilling well at Sunetra today


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 Shamim Jahangir
  The state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) starts drilling an exploratory well at ‘Sunetra’ gas structure today, as part of a search for more sources of energy.

Petrobangla Chairman Prof Hossain Monsur Thursday sought blessing from all to complete the drilling at the structure to infuse more gas into the national grid.

He said the government added additional 597mmcfd (million cubic feet gas per day) in last three years with discovery of two newly gas fields at Sundolpur and Srikail.

Bapex mobilised an exploratory rig to Sunetra in May last, Bapex official Amzad Hossain told daily sun.

Before the start of rig mobilisation, a 35-kilometre road was constructed and renovated for transportation.

About the road, he said it was a big task to complete renovation and construction of the road within a year after the start of the project in January last year.

He said Bapex was hopeful to get an outcome from exploration within four months after it began drilling.

Bapex had placed a Tk 910 million development project proposal (DPP) to run the project between January, 2012 and June, 2013, according to the official.

A high-powered committee, led by Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary Mohammed Mesbahuddin, on Sunday recommended the project for approval.

At a meeting held at the secretariat, he also asked the officials concerned to implement the project in time.

The gas exploration company will receive funds from Gas Development Fund (GDF), the Bapex official said. GDF has a fund of over Tk 13.56 billion.

Last year, Bapex placed a Tk 2.79 billion DPP before the government for drilling four exploratory wells at Sunetra gas structure located in Sunamganj and Netrakona districts.

But Energy and Mineral Resources Division sent back the DPP and asked Bapex to submit a revised proposal immediately.

According to the first DPP, the implementation period of the project was divided into two phases — exploration in the first phase between December this year and June next year and development of the structure in the second phase between July, 2012 and June, 2014.

Bapex discovered the Sunetra structure in 2010 through conducting a two dimensional (2-D) seismic survey on 260 square-kilometre area in the districts and estimated a gas reserve of over 2.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF).

As per the survey, the potential reserve is enough to meet the existing gas demand of the country for about three years or the present supply shortage of 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) for about 15 years.

To facilitate the development works of the structure, a 3.5-kilometre driveway had already been reconstructed on an emergency basis.

Bapex earlier had planned to drill the exploratory well at the structure in late last year. But it was delayed as the construction firm allegedly failed to complete the driveway on time, a Petrobangla official said.

Bapex had already prepared a 20-year roadmap to explore oil and gas in 74 exploratory and development wells in 23 onshore block structures in the country.

According to the roadmap, it would drill 13 exploratory wells between 2011 and 2015. By this time, it would drill four exploratory wells at Sunetra.

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