Sylhet Gas Fields: Production to go up 7 times

Sylhet Gas Fields (SGFL) is aiming to increase gas production by seven times by 2025 by way of exploring new gas reserves, digging eight new wells and workover of 11 abandoned wells.

With the help of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (BAPEX), SGFL has set a target to produce 618 million cubic feet of gas per day by 2025 from the current 91 million cubic feet that it supplies to the national grid.

Production will increase to 174 million cubic feet of gas per day in 2023 and to 429 million in 2024, said Md. Mijanur Rahman, managing director of SGFL.

In 2025, 46 wells will be in operation and produce 618 million cubic feet of gas per day.

The three-dimensional seismic survey for exploring new gas reserves, the digging of new wells and workover of the abandoned wells have begun, Rahman said.

Well workover refers to invasive techniques to repair an existing production well to restore, prolong or enhance the production of hydrocarbons.

So far, the workover of Sylhet-8 and Kailashtila-7 wells have completed, while that of the Beanibazar-1 well has started under the supervision of BAPEX for completion by December.

The Beanibazar-1 well was closed in 2016 after producing 35 billion cubic feet of gas from a depth of 3,450 metres out of the 4,100-metre deep well.

"After removing the old pipe, we will interpret the log to confirm the presence of gas and then extraction will be resumed. We are hopeful of producing 7-10 million cubic feet of gas per day."

In addition, more than 90 barrels of condensate will be produced daily from the well, he said.