Bangladesh Petroleum and Exploration Company (BAPEX) discovered gas by re-excavating an abandoned gas field in Sylhet’s Biyanibazar. If this gas field goes into production, 15-16 million cubic feet of gas will be added to the national grid, officials said. The discovery of gas from abandoned wells is undoubtedly a hopeful news in this time of crisis. With this, the possibility of getting gas from other abandoned wells in the country has also increased. It also increases the hope of finding new gas wells in the ground if properly explored. It is expected that Petrobangla and Bapex will take appropriate steps in this regard.
The places where gas has been found in Bangladesh are at an average depth of 5,000 meters. BGFCL’s five gas fields have also produced gas from this layer. There is a possibility of getting gas further below this level. This requires deep drilling or digging deeper into the soil. The rigs of foreign companies, including Bapex, a government agency of Bangladesh, have an average drilling capacity of 5,000 meters. To dig deeper than seven thousand meters, new rigs have to be bought for BAPEX.
Besides, it is assumed that new reserves of gas can be found if drilling is done at greater depth by hiring rigs and contractors. The geo-structural features of all discovered fields except two gas fields in Bhola alone in the country are Anti-Klein structure. The two areas discovered in Bhola are new features of stratigraphic geo-structure. Experts believe that the possibility of getting gas in this stratigraphic structure from Bhola, Barisal to Khulna and even Rajshahi is very high.
The country’s 27th gas field has been discovered in Mubarakpur stratigraphic structure in Pabna. Bhola and Mubarakpur of Pabna are areas included in the Bengal basin. The special feature of these areas is that gas is found in the basins of the main rivers of the country. Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited or BAPEX is the only state-owned oil and gas exploration and extraction company in the country. Many times the company discovers most of the fields but does not get the opportunity to exploit and manage them. For an unknown reason, foreign companies were given the task of drilling, extracting and managing wells in the fields discovered by BAPEX. There are also questions about Bapex’s ability to perform as it needs to be meanwhile, a much closer attention should be paid by BAPEX.
Ensuring sustainable energy for all is one of the 17 goals announced by the United Nations to achieve the SDGs by 2030. One of the conditions of the SDGs is to make energy security accessible to all. Bangladesh is not in a good position in this regard. There are four important elements in energy security—fuel availability, fuel affordability, fuel availability and fuel security operations. Bangladesh could not take any of these forward satisfactorily. Developed countries like Germany are self-sufficient in renewable energy by 2050
We also need to revamp our energy management. It should be noted that the production of the industry is not affected due to the current energy crisis. Otherwise, the entrepreneurs of Bangladesh will fall behind in the international competition. Industry owners are struggling to overcome the losses of Corona. Furthermore, if production is affected by the gas crisis, it will be difficult for many to survive.
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