Gas crisis likely to end soon

Bibiyana resumes full production

Staff Correspondent: After four days of disruption the Chrvron-operated Bibiyana gas field resumed full production from yesterdaymorning, which is likely to end the gas crisis in parts of Bangladesh.
Chevron Bangladesh in a statement confirmed this, saying that the Bibiyana Gas Plant has resumed full operations, with all process trains operational, five of the six affected wells back online and gas production at normal levels.
The trains and wells were progressively restored this week after a suspension of operations following the discovery of technical anomalies in one well on April 3.
The cause of the anomalies in the well, which remains offline, is being investigated, said the company.
Regrettably, this impacted gas supplies to consumers for some days this week.
Chevron Bangladesh would like to acknowledge the assistance and partnership of Petrobangla in responding to this event, said Shaikh Jahidur Rahman, communications manager of Chevron Bangladesh.
The country’s gas production drastically fell by about 450 MMCFD (million cubic feet per day) on Sunday, the very first day of Ramadan, following a technical fault developed in the Bibiyana gas field.
The Bibiyana gas field production capacity is 1200 MMCFD.
The supply situation started improving from Monday afternoon as production resumed at one of the two affected process trains at the gas field.
Officials said the gas field process system noticed that sand was coming out from two production wells which forced the authorities concerned to halt the production of the wells.
The incident had a big impact on the overall gas production as many areas experienced disruptions following the fall in the pressure of gas supply as an outcome of the fault.
Consumers in many areas in the capital including Mohammadpur, Shekhertek, Rayerbazar, Dhanmondi, Shankar, Kanthalbagan, Mudhubazar, Kalabagan, Rampura, Wari, Maghbazar, Arambagh, Fakirapul, Banasree, Gopibagh, Mirpur, and Iskatan complained that they are not getting gas for cooking their meals.
The major impact was on the power generation as the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) had to shut down a good number of power plants immediately which led to load shedding at different districts across the country.