Bangladesh's natural gas reserves will last next 8 years

 

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The gas crisis is emerging and the reserves are running out.

The country's 28 gas fields have only 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of extractable natural gas reserves. The annual demand for gas in the country is about one TCF. A maximum of 80% of the stored gas can be extracted from any gas well. There are about eight TCFs of extractable gas in the country. With these reserves, Bangladesh can run only next eight years.

Titas gas field is the largest natural gas field in Bangladesh. It was discovered by the then Pakistan Shell Oil Company in Brahmanbaria in the year 1962. The first gas field was discovered at Haripur, Sylhet in 1955, and the latest gas field was found in 2017 at Bhola. About 76% of the total gas is reserved in the fields of Titas, Bibiyana, Habiganj, Kailashtila, Rashidpur, Bakhrabad, Jalalabad.

Geologists and energy experts say that if no major gas field is found in the country within a few years, the productivity and growth of gas-based industries, including gas-fired power plants, fertilizer factories, ready-made garment industry, will suffer. Then the government will be forced to meet the demand with imported liquefied natural gas-LNG at high prices.

 In view of the increasing demand for natural gas in the country, no initiative has been taken in the last two decades to discover new gas fields.

Nazmul Ahsan, the chairman of Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla), said, "If gas reserves are not increased, then the current reserves will run out within eight to eight and a half years”.

The chairman of Petrobangla said, ‘ Two Dimensional (2D) seismic survey work in the hilly areas starting from the district Feni is in the final stage. The results will be available by next November-December. If positive results are obtained from there, drilling will also be done in the hilly areas of Mirsarai, Sitakunda, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Meanwhile, drilling work has begun in the Bhola district gas field by Russia's government-owned company Gazprom (OGZPY) . Hoping to get good stock here.

Nazmul Ahsan said, “Our last effort is the deep sea. Indian Company ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) has also dug a well in the sea. However, gas did not exist. They have called for tenders to dig another well. The second well will start digging within six months.

According to Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources Corporation (Petrobangla), the daily demand of gas in the country is about four thousand million cubic feet. But thirty-one thousand million cubic feet of gas is supplied. Of these twenty-three thousand cubic feet of gas is coming from domestic wells supply. The remaining 800 million cubic feet is being filled with imported LNG.

As per available data, 2,570 million cubic feet of gas were extracted daily from domestic wells in 2020. In 2022, the daily extraction stood at 2,270 million cubic feet. This means that the gap between demand and supply of gas has widened. The government has to increase its dependence on expensive LNG imports to handle the demand. The cost of importing LNG is 7 to 10 times more than the cost of domestic gas production. As a result, the pressure of subsidies in the energy sector is increasing.

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) said they are now working with the target of increasing short-term gas exploration and production. BAPEX will dig 22 wells to meet this goal.

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) also said that “If we can't supply domestic gas, we will be in great danger after 2030. LNG is currently only 20 percent of the gas supplied to the grid. The remaining 80 percent is domestic natural gas. Now the government is struggling to bear the cost of 20 percent LNG”.

There is no alternative to gas exploration in the country. Myanmar has discovered several gas fields in the sea. There is a possibility of a large number of gas fields in Bangladesh's waters near Myanmar waters.  If exploration is carried out there, the large gas fields of the country will be discovered from there.