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 (19 September) from Well No. 28 of the 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 the 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 Titas-28 and Titas-29 have already been completed, while work on Titas-30, Titas-31 and Bakhrabad-11 is 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 drilling of the 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 Titas-28, Titas-29, Titas-30 and Kamta-2 were initiated at a cost of Tk800 crore.

Of these, 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 and supply gas to the national grid.

Md Mahmudul Nawab, director of the Deep Exploration Gas Well Drilling Project of BGFCL, said drilling of 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.

"The Titas-29 well has the potential to supply about 10 to 15 million cubic feet of gas daily to the national grid," Nawab 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 deep well No. 11 at the Bakhrabad gas field are scheduled to begin. The target depth for this well is 4,500 metres, with a potential variation 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 potential to obtain 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.

Regarding the reserves of the Titas gas field, 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 the well could add another 2 TCF to the gas reserves. However, tests must be conducted at various levels after drilling is completed to determine the volume of these reserves.

The volume of the new reserves can be determined after obtaining the test results, the officials said.