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Biyanibazar-1 onshore well in Sylhet region resumed natural gas production on Monday night after five years, officials say.
Some 8.0 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) of natural gas has been added to the national grid with the re-initiation of production from the well following a successful work over, a senior official at Sylhet Gas Fields Ltd (SGFL) told the FE.
Biyanibazar gas-field is owned by the SGFL.
With the addition, total gas output from the Biyanibazar gas field doubled to around 15 mmcfd from the two of its producing wells, according to statistics of state-run Petrobangla.
The remaining producing gas well in Bibiyana gas field is currently producing around 7.0 mmcfd.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (BAPEX) completed the work over of the well and subsequently carried out test production from the well last week, said the SGFL official. The state-run gas-exploration company had initiated work over of the well in Biyanibazar gas-field early September to reinitiate gas production to augment domestic supply and feed the energy-hungry industries and households.
It found a new gas zone some 3,200 metres beneath the surface, said the official. With the Biyanibazar-1 gas well, the BAPEX concluded a three-well-drilling contract with the SGFL at a cost of around Tk 1.0 billion.
The BAPEX previously completed drilling of two SGFL wells -- Sylhet-8 and Kailashtila-7.
The Sylhet-8 well is now producing around 6.0 mmcfd of gas and Kailashtila-7 well around 7mmcfd.
The Biyanibazar-1 had been a producing gas well until 2017. It had produced natural gas since 1991 till 2014 uninterruptedly. After 2014, it had stopped producing gas for one year and then reinitiated production for three years between 2015 and 2017. Thereafter, the Biyanibazar-1 well was producing natural gas from an old gas zone at some 3,400-metre depth.
Bangladesh needs over 4,000 mmcfd gas to meet the domestic demand, while the total availability would be around 2,580 mmcfd including imported LNG or liquefied natural gas.