DHAKA, Dec 11 (NNN-BSS) – Bangladesh announced the discovery of new oil and gas reserves in its north-eastern Sylhet region.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Nasrul Hamid, made the announcement in a press briefing yesterday, saying, the deposit, capable of producing 500-600 barrels of crude oil per day, has been discovered at a well in Sylhet district, some 240 km north-east of Dhaka.
He said, the presence of oil was confirmed at a depth of 1,397-1,445 metres.
Apart from this, he said, the gas deposit was also discovered at different depths, with the largest reserve yielding 25 million cubic feet of gas flow at a flowing pressure of 3,250 pounds per square inch (PSI).
“We started drilling in our Sylhet-10 well two months ago. The gas was found in four layers there,” said the official.
“The greater news is that we’ve found oil in the first layer,” he added.
In 2012, Bangladesh struck commercially feasible oil for the first time in two gas fields in the north-eastern Sylhet region.
The state minister said, the full extent of the latest gas and oil reserves will be known after all the tests are completed in four to five months.
According to officials of the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla), the reserves, worth around 850 billion taka (over seven billion dollars) may be usable for more than 15 years.
They said, the gas amount found in the four layers of the Sylhet-10 well is estimated to be 43.1 billion cubic feet.
Currently, about 2,300 million cubic feet of gas per day is being produced from 21 gas fields in Bangladesh, while about 700 million cubic feet of gas per day is being imported from abroad, in order to meet the market demand in the country.
On the other hand, Bangladesh required about 6.7 million tonnes of fuel in the fiscal year 2021-22, with the country’s fuel consumption rising by up to eight percent each year, according to data from the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC).– NNN-BSS
