Fresh gas reserve found at Kailashtila-1; up to 6mmcfd set for grid
Officials said the reserve was found after a workover of the ageing well, with other drilling and rehabilitation projects underway to raise national output
Petrobangla officials yesterday said some 5–6 million cubic feet of gas to be extracted from a newly explored well in Sylhet's Kailashtila gas field is expected to be added daily to the national gas grid by next week.
"A new gas reserve has been found in the Kailashtila-1 gas well in Golapganj upazila of Sylhet after the workover of the first well. Some 5 to 6mmcfd of gas is expected to be added from there in the next one week," Petrobangla spokesman Tariqul Islam Khan told BSS.
He said Petrobangla's major subsidiary, Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex), was currently carrying out "workover," meaning activities on an oil or gas well to restore or increase production.
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Khan, also a deputy general manager of Petrobangla, said drilling and workover activities were underway on 11 wells, including Sylhet-10, Sylhet-11, Rashidpur-11, Srikail-5, Habiganj-5, Kailashtila-1, Beanibazar-2, and Semutang-6.
He said that Petrobangla has intensified several exploration programmes including a work plan of 50 wells drilling and workover by 2025–26 and 100 wells drilling and workover by 2026–28.
According to Petrobangla officials, the Kailashtila gas field was discovered in 1961, and eight wells have been drilled so far.
An average of 28mmcfd of gas was added to the national grid from four Kailashtila wells in the 2023-24 fiscal year, and now the newly found well would add 5mmcfd.
Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) feeds the grid from the wells in the field.
The state-run entity has five gas fields under its purview, namely Haripur Gas Field, Kailashtila Gas Field, Rashidpur Gas Field, Beanibazar Gas Field, and Chhatak Gas Field, which also produces condensate and NGL, octane, petrol (RON 89), kerosene, diesel, and LPG from its 14 gas wells.
Bangladesh's current gas production is around 2201.67mmcfd while the country consumes 2,900mmcfd daily, with extra gas coming through imports, while officials estimated the demand volume to be some 4,000mmcfd.
Petrobangla officials said since 2023, re-drilling and workover initiatives were taken in the closed Kailashtila wells, resulting in production of 5.85mmcfd of gas.
In January this year, the workover project of Kailashtila-1, Rashidpur-3, and Beanibazar-2 wells was undertaken, while re-drilling of the Kailashtila-1 well started last August, it said.
