New gas well offers hope amid supply crisis

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) has begun drilling a new gas well in Noakhali’s Senbagh upazila, raising hopes of easing the country’s ongoing gas shortage.

The new well, located at Bara Charigaon village under Nabipur union, is expected to undergo 45 days of drilling followed by 15 days of Drill Stem Testing (DST) to determine its gas reserves.

If the drilling and testing are successful, the well could initially supply around 7 million cubic feet of natural gas per day (MMCFD) to the national grid.

Drilling officially began on Tuesday, while full-scale operations got underway on Wednesday under the “Sundalpur-4 Appraisal-cum-Development Well Drilling Project.”

According to BAPEX, the initial drilling target has been set at 1,550 metres below the surface. Natural gas is expected to be found in two prospective zones at depths of approximately 1,361 metres and 1,450 metres. The well is being drilled using the directional drilling method.

Drilling In-Charge Zakir Hossain Khan said the volume of recoverable gas would be known after the completion of drilling and the subsequent DST.

He added that drilling operations, which began on Tuesday, will continue uninterrupted until the target depth is reached.

BAPEX officials said gas exploration in the Begumganj area dates back to 1976, when the first exploratory well was identified.

Although two wells drilled in 1978 did not yield commercial gas, a third well discovered in 2013 proved successful and has been producing gas since then. Following a workover in 2018, the well is currently supplying around 8 MMCFD of gas to the national grid.

BAPEX has so far drilled three wells in the Sundalpur field—Sundalpur-1, Sundalpur-2 and Sundalpur-3. While production from Sundalpur-1 and Sundalpur-3 is currently suspended, Sundalpur-2 continues to supply gas to the national grid. Production from Sundalpur-3 is expected to resume after a workover.

The latest exploration comes as Bangladesh grapples with a severe gas shortage following a fire at the LNG terminal in Cox’s Bazar. Over the past week, reduced gas supply has disrupted household cooking, industrial production and electricity generation, leading to increased load-shedding across the country.

The crisis has also resulted in long queues at CNG filling stations, while residents in Dhaka and other parts of the country continue to face significant disruptions to daily life.