12.5m CFT gas to enter grid tomorrow, 55m more in 4 months
About 12.5 million cubic feet (CFT) of gas will be added to the national grid tomorrow from Well No. of Titas Gas Field, operated by Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BGFCL).
In addition, about 55 million CFT of gas is expected to be added to the grid from four more wells in Titas and Bakhrabad gas fields within the next three to four months.
This gas is being added to the national grid as a result of initiatives to drill new wells and develop existing gas fields aimed at increasing supply from local sources in line with the commitments of the BNP government.
BGFCL officials said drilling operations for wells Titas-28 has already been completed while Titas-29, 30, and 31, as well as Bakhrabad-11, are underway.
Once work on these wells is completed, it will be possible to supply about 67.5 million CFT of additional gas to the national grid within the next three to four months, they said.
BGFCL General Manager (Operations) Engineer Md Ashraful Alam said State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Aninda Islam Amit is expected to inaugurate the Titas-28 well tomorrow.
“Immediately following the inauguration, the well will be connected to the national grid. This will help increase gas supply from domestic sources, reducing the pressure caused by import dependency,” he said.
Engineer AKM Jasim Uddin, project director of the “Drilling of 4 Appraisal-cum-Development Wells in Titas and Kamta Fields” project, told BSS that the drilling of Titas-28 well was completed about a month ago.
“The well has a depth of about 13,000 feet. It will be connected to the national grid immediately after the inauguration,” he said.
He said drilling operations for wells Titas-28, 29, 30, and Kamta-2 were initiated at a cost of Taka 800 crore.
Among those, Jasim Uddin said, the Titas-28 well is set to go into production tomorrow and there are plans to expedite work on the other wells too and supply gas to the national grid.
Md Mahmudul Nawab, director of the Deep Exploration Gas Well Drilling Project of BGFCL, said drilling for the Titas-31 deep exploration well began on April 19 this year.
The well has already reached a depth of about 4,920 metres, while its target depth is 5,600 metres, subject to a variation of about 100 metres.
He noted that the significant depth requires more time for drilling and subsequent operations.
Barring any unforeseen geological complications, work on Titas-31 is expected to be completed within the next two to three months, Nawab said.
Upon successful completion, the well could supply about 15 million cubic feet of gas daily to the national grid, he said.
Nawab said the primary drilling for Titas-29 has already been concluded. “Currently, logging and other activities are underway. Once these tasks are completed, the well would be ready for production within the next one to one-and-a-half months. Titas-29 well has the potential to supply about 10 to 15 million cubic feet of gas daily to the national grid,” he said.
Besides, there are plans to complete work on Titas-30 within the next three to four months.
BGFCL expects to extract about 10 to 15 million cubic feet of gas daily from this well.
According to BGFCL officials, following the completion of Titas-31, drilling operations for the Bakhrabad gas field’s deep well No. 11 are scheduled to begin. The target depth for this well is 4,500 metres, with a potential margin of 100 metres. Successful drilling and testing could enable a daily supply of about 10 million cubic feet of gas from Bakhrabad-11 to the national grid.
In total, there is a potential to get up to 45 million cubic feet of gas daily from Titas wells 29, 30, and 31, and about 10 million cubic feet from Bakhrabad-11.
If an additional 12.5 million cubic feet of gas from Titas-28 is included, it may be possible to supply a maximum of about 67.5 million cubic feet to the national grid from the five wells, they said.
About the reserves of the Titas gas field, the officials said the current reserve is estimated at around 1.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF). However, since Titas-31 is an exploration well, there is a possibility of discovering new gas reserves.
Initial estimates suggest that this well could add another 2 TCF of gas reserves. However, to identify the volume of these reserves, tests must be conducted at various levels after the drilling is completed.
The volume of the new reserves can be determined after obtaining the test results, the officials said.
