Bhola Gas Field: Trial extraction begins at ninth well

State-run exploration company Bapex has extracted gas on experimental basis from a new well named Ilisha-1 in Bhola Sadar upazila today.

With this, Bapex has made gas discoveries in all nine wells in the island district.

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) hopes to supply 20 to 22 million cubic feet of gas per day from Ilisha-1, Md Alamgir Hossain, general manager of Bapex, told The Daily Star.

The country's total gas production in local gas fields now stands at around 600-700 mmcfd.

The government has taken various steps to increase gas production in order to ease energy crisis in the country.

As part of the steps, Bapex took the initiative to drill Ilisha-1 well. The drilling started in West Elisha union of Bhola Sadar upazila on March 9.

The well was drilled successfully up to 3,475m deep on April 24. Gazprom, a Russian energy giant, helped Bapex drill Ilisha-1.

The Bapex general manager said they would carry out different experiments in the new well till May 15.

Bhola has two gas fields -- Shahbazpur and Bhola North.

The gas wells in the district have a total gas reserve of around 1.7 trillion cubic feet, said officials.