Bapex has found a large gas reserve at Shahbazpur of Bhola.

The discovery of the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex) was revealed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the cabinet meeting she chaired yesterday.

Briefing reporters at the Bangladesh Secretariat after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Shafiul Alam said the new field is said to have reserves of about 700 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

The new gas field, Shahbazpur Gas Field East-1, is three and a half kilometres east of Shahbazpur Gas Field, officials said.

Alam said if the new gas reserve was added to that of the existing Shahbazpur Gas Field, the total gas reserve of that area would be over one trillion cubic feet.

The exploratory drilling at the new gas field had begun on August 6, he said. 

Bapex Managing Director Md Nowshad Islam told The Daily Star over the phone yesterday that the company had become sure of the reserve yesterday. “ … it will have a positive impact on the national energy security and will minimise concerns regarding it,” he said.

The Bapex MD said the country has about 11-12 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves and the annual consumption was about one trillion. “So energy security is at stake and we have to think about importing LNG [liquefied natural gas],” he added.

“From a commercial point of view, the discovery is extremely important at a time when the country has started to think about importing LNG."

He said it would take at least 7-8 months to set up the processing plant to extract the gas from the new field.

Bapex MD Nowshad said Bhola being an island did not have many gas consumers but the prospect of industrialisation in the South could rise after this discovery.

Meherul Hasan, a senior official of Bapex and also the project director of the 3D seismic survey conducted there, told The Daily Star that in the last one week, they conducted all scientific tests to measure how much gas there was.

They have come to the conclusion that at least 700 billion cubic feet of gas was there, he said, adding that in the last one decade this was the biggest discovery in terms of reserves.

Meherul said gas was found in three tiers, between 3,400 and 3,470 metres beneath the surface.

After yesterday's cabinet meeting, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury told The Daily Star that the premier termed the discovery good news for the country and that this would help Bangladesh to be more energy secure.

State Minister for Power Energy and Natural Resources Nasrul Hamid told journalists that the gas to be extracted from the new field would be used for power generation.