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a year ago

PM pushes for study to set up fertiliser factory in Bhola

It is difficult to transport gas from the island district

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Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asked for a study to check the feasibility of setting up a fertiliser plant in Bhola and run it with the natural gas found there.

Cabinet Secretary Mahbub Hossain said the prime minister discussed ways to use the gas found in the island district after the Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry informed her about the finding of oil and gas in a Sylhet field during a meeting of the council of ministers on Monday.

It is difficult to transport gas from Bhola. A small quantity is supplied as compressed natural gas or CNG to industries in other regions, reports bdnews24.com.

After the discovery of gas in Bhola in 1993-94, Bangladesh currently has three gas fields in the district and gas has been found in nine wells there.

The government also plans to supply gas from Bhola to Khulna via pipeline.

With a total estimated reserve of 2.43 trillion cubic feet of gas in Bhola’s three gas fields in Shahjadpur, Bhola North and Ilisha, the authorities have a daily gas extraction capacity of more than 200 million cubic feet from the fields.  

Mohammad Shoeyb, managing director of the state-run energy exploration company BAPEX, said the power stations, and industrial and residential customers of Bhola currently consume 85 million cubic feet of gas from the gas fields in the district daily.

The fertiliser factories in Bangladesh are unable to use their full capacity now due to a lack of gas. Thus the government imports fertiliser at a high cost to meet domestic demand.

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