Bangladesh used almost 68 pc of gas reserves

Mahfuz Emran: The country’s gas reserves are running out, which has been discussed for years. However, there is no preparation about how much stock is there, how long it will last, what will be the alternative if the stock runs out. Even after settling disputes with India and Myanmar over maritime boundaries, gas exploration initiatives have not progressed much. In such a situation, the hydrocarbon unit under the energy department gave big bad news.
According to the report published by the organization, the amount of recoverable gas reserves in the country is 29.9265 trillion cubic feet (TCF). Of this, 20.3534 TCF has been extracted till last June, which is 68 percent of the reserves.
At that time, the remaining gas reserves in the country were 9.5731 TCF or 32 percent. However, some gas can’t be extracted from the remaining reserves. Because some gas can’t be extracted in each field when the pressure decreases.
According to information, US company Chevron has been supplying the most gas to the country for several years. The company had gas reserves of 7.6127 TCF in three fields. Of this, 7.5423 TCF of gas has been extracted. That is, more than 99 percent of the gas reserves from the fields under Chevron are over. Currently, the company has no gas reserves in the Jalalabad field. And Moulvibazar and Bibiana have little gas reserves.
Experts say more than half of local gas supplies to the national grid come from Chevron’s fields. However, due to the increased supply of gas from them over the years, their reserves have been depleted. Although more than half of the country’s gas reserves are in gas fields operated by local companies. But so far companies have not been able to increase supply in that way. Due to the increasing demand of gas in the country, the gas sector may face a major disaster in the near future if alternative channels or supply lines for local supply are not created now.
Meanwhile, in terms of quantity, the most gas has been extracted from the fields of Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited. Under this company, 12.2520 TCF of gas was stored in six fields. Of this, 9.2502 TCF or 75.50 percent has been extracted. And the remaining is slightly more than three TCF of gas.
Sylhet Gas Fields Company is in the third position in terms of extraction. Under this company, there were 7.033 TCF of gas reserves in five fields. Of this, only one-tenth 8559 TCF or 26.39 percent has been extracted. And the remaining 5.1771 TCF of gas.
According to the information of Hydro Carbon Unit, Rashidpur, Titas and Kailastila currently have the highest gas reserves in the country. In these three cases, the amount of gas reserves is 2.4315 TCF, 2.2567 TCF and 2.0839 TCF respectively. Among these, Titus is under Bangladesh Gas Fields and Rashidpur and Kailastila are under Sylhet Gas Fields.
Apart from these three fields, Bakhrabad under Bangladesh Gas Fields has 0.5151 TCF, Chhatak Gas Field under Sylhet Gas Fields has 0.4482 TCF of gas and Semutang Gas Field under BAPEX has 0.3037 TCF of gas reserves. However, reserves in other gas fields are less than zero and two TCF.
According to information, currently there are eight gas fields under BAPEX. They had gas reserves of 1.4608 TCF, of which 0.6066 TCF have been extracted. And remaining zero decimal 9002 TCF. There is a gas field under the multinational crust. It had zero decimal 621 TCF. Of this, 0.5460 TCF has been extracted and 0.075 TCF is stored.
On the other hand, multinational companies Santos and Nico are currently not supplying any gas. There were two gas fields under these two companies. From those two fields, 0.4895 TCF and 0.063 TCF of gas were extracted respectively.
Last January, in response to a question in the National Assembly, Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that the amount of gas stored in the country till June 2022 was 9.06 TCF. Considering that about 2,250 million cubic feet of gas is being produced daily from the domestic gas fields, it will be possible to meet the demand for about 11 years with the remaining stored gas. Apart from this, various activities of searching for new gas fields are also being conducted.
Badrul Imam, an energy expert and professor of Geology Department of Dhaka University told in this context that the shortage caused by the reduction in Chevron’s gas supply is not possible for domestic companies. Because they themselves could not increase gas extraction for years. Even with huge reserves of gas, the supply to the grid is low. The initiatives being taken now will not bring any major gas supply to the grid.