Much trumpeted exploration for oil and gas by foreign companies as well as the state-run Petrobangla brought little hope to energy starved Bangladesh, experts said on Tuesday.
They said that little or no success and slow exploration activities was bound to significantly affect the projected power generation and industrial production.
They said that the countrys energy security was facing uncertainty due to the slow pace of exploration for raising gas production from old fields.
Energy expert Ijaz Hossain, a teacher at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told New Age that Bangladesh needed to find out, on an average, new gas reserves of one trillion cubic feet a year to meet the existing demand.
To achieve the objective, he said, the government would have to ensure drilling at least 10 exploration wells a year at different prospective sites, he said.
State run Petrobangla supplies around 0.75 trillion cubic feet of gas a year to the national grid compared to the national demand of at least one trillion cubic feet.
According to Petrobanglas forecast, the countrys demand for gas would increase to around 3,600 million cubic feet a day by 2014.
Out of this Bangladesh would need 2,000 million cubic feet of gas a day only to generate 9,600MW of power.
Since 2010, the state-run and foreign companies struck two small gas reserves with 60-70 billion cubic feet of gas after drilling seven exploration wells.
Ijaz said that neither the state run nor the foreign companies could discover new gas fields for years.
They only achieved some success in increasing gas production from old reserves, he said.
Petrobangla expects the state-run and foreign companies to increase gas production by around 900 million cubic feet a day from the old fields under by 2014.
The subsidiaries of Petrobangla are expected to add approximately 250 million cubic feet of gas supply to the national grid from new gas fields by 2014.
Ijaz, however, said that no reserve below 200 billion cubic feet is accepted as a reserve by energy industry.
In last two years Chevron drilled two exploration wells at hydrocarbon block 7 in Patuakhali and block 14 in Moulovibazaar but found no recoverable gas.
Santos, another international oil company, struck gas at Sangu 11, after drilling three wells in the offshore hydrocarbon block 16.
Santos expects to supply directly to consumers 20-25 million cubic feet of natural gas a day for two to three years from Sangu 11, a reserve of 20-25 billion cubic feet at a price to be negotiated.
M Tamim, BUET professor and former special assistant to the emergency caretaker government chief adviser, however, said that the three wells drilled by Santos near Sangu gas field and the well drilled by Chevron in Moulovibazar were step out wells drilled near existing gas reserves, rather than exploration wells.
He said drilling three wells in two years since 2010, was much ado about nothing.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company, popularly called Bapex, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, drilled two exploration wells one at Sundolpur structure in Noakhali and the second one at Kapasia structure in Gajipur district.
Bapex found a 40-50 billion cubic feet natural gas reserve at Sundolpur in 2011.
It found the Kapasia structure dry last week.
The foreign companies performance in exploration for new reserves proved to be dismal compared to Bapex.
Out of seven offshore and onshore hydrocarbon blocks given to three international oil companies Chevron, Santos and ConocoPhillips only ConocoPhillips has plans to drill one or more exploration wells in the deep sea hydrocarbon blocks 10 and 11.
In the backdrop of such disappointing performance in exploration for oil and gas in the offshore and the onshore blocks, Bangladesh could expect some results only from the exploration exercises of Bapex.
Petrobangla chairman Hossain Monsur said that he expects that the two prospective structures Sunetro and Srikile would not disappoint the nation.
Officials said that Bapex was scheduled to drill exploration wells at Srikile structure in Comilla and Sunetro structure spread out in Sunamganj and Netrokona by August this year.
Bapex would drill four other exploration wells at different locations by 2014, they said.
They said that little or no success and slow exploration activities was bound to significantly affect the projected power generation and industrial production.
They said that the countrys energy security was facing uncertainty due to the slow pace of exploration for raising gas production from old fields.
Energy expert Ijaz Hossain, a teacher at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, told New Age that Bangladesh needed to find out, on an average, new gas reserves of one trillion cubic feet a year to meet the existing demand.
To achieve the objective, he said, the government would have to ensure drilling at least 10 exploration wells a year at different prospective sites, he said.
State run Petrobangla supplies around 0.75 trillion cubic feet of gas a year to the national grid compared to the national demand of at least one trillion cubic feet.
According to Petrobanglas forecast, the countrys demand for gas would increase to around 3,600 million cubic feet a day by 2014.
Out of this Bangladesh would need 2,000 million cubic feet of gas a day only to generate 9,600MW of power.
Since 2010, the state-run and foreign companies struck two small gas reserves with 60-70 billion cubic feet of gas after drilling seven exploration wells.
Ijaz said that neither the state run nor the foreign companies could discover new gas fields for years.
They only achieved some success in increasing gas production from old reserves, he said.
Petrobangla expects the state-run and foreign companies to increase gas production by around 900 million cubic feet a day from the old fields under by 2014.
The subsidiaries of Petrobangla are expected to add approximately 250 million cubic feet of gas supply to the national grid from new gas fields by 2014.
Ijaz, however, said that no reserve below 200 billion cubic feet is accepted as a reserve by energy industry.
In last two years Chevron drilled two exploration wells at hydrocarbon block 7 in Patuakhali and block 14 in Moulovibazaar but found no recoverable gas.
Santos, another international oil company, struck gas at Sangu 11, after drilling three wells in the offshore hydrocarbon block 16.
Santos expects to supply directly to consumers 20-25 million cubic feet of natural gas a day for two to three years from Sangu 11, a reserve of 20-25 billion cubic feet at a price to be negotiated.
M Tamim, BUET professor and former special assistant to the emergency caretaker government chief adviser, however, said that the three wells drilled by Santos near Sangu gas field and the well drilled by Chevron in Moulovibazar were step out wells drilled near existing gas reserves, rather than exploration wells.
He said drilling three wells in two years since 2010, was much ado about nothing.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company, popularly called Bapex, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, drilled two exploration wells one at Sundolpur structure in Noakhali and the second one at Kapasia structure in Gajipur district.
Bapex found a 40-50 billion cubic feet natural gas reserve at Sundolpur in 2011.
It found the Kapasia structure dry last week.
The foreign companies performance in exploration for new reserves proved to be dismal compared to Bapex.
Out of seven offshore and onshore hydrocarbon blocks given to three international oil companies Chevron, Santos and ConocoPhillips only ConocoPhillips has plans to drill one or more exploration wells in the deep sea hydrocarbon blocks 10 and 11.
In the backdrop of such disappointing performance in exploration for oil and gas in the offshore and the onshore blocks, Bangladesh could expect some results only from the exploration exercises of Bapex.
Petrobangla chairman Hossain Monsur said that he expects that the two prospective structures Sunetro and Srikile would not disappoint the nation.
Officials said that Bapex was scheduled to drill exploration wells at Srikile structure in Comilla and Sunetro structure spread out in Sunamganj and Netrokona by August this year.
Bapex would drill four other exploration wells at different locations by 2014, they said.
