Bangladesh has found a huge petroleum oil reserve and four layers of gas in a new well in Sylhet.
The gas and petroleum oil reserve have been discovered by the Sylhet Gas Field Limited (SGFL).
About 600 barrels of oil can be produced per day from the new well while there is approximately 100.85 billion cubic feet of gas reserve there in four layers.
The announcement came just after two weeks of the discovery of a new gas well in the same district where 50 billion cubic feet of gas is expectedly reserved.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Sunday said oil reserve was discovered at the first layer at well No-10 of SGFL.
“The reserve will be able to produce 500-600 barrels of oil per day. About 35 barrels of oil flow is available per hour right now,” the State Minister came up with the disclosure at a press conference at his ministry conference room on Sunday.
Nasrul Hamid said that in total, four layers of reserve oil have also been discovered and the oil reserve could be lasted for15 years, adding, “The further test will be determined the extent of the deposit.”
He said the extraction at well no-10 reached a depth of 2,576 metres and after testing on Friday, the presence of oil was confirmed at the first layer, at a depth of 1,397-1,445 metres.
“A total of 35 barrels of oil will be extracted from there per hour. As such, it is possible to extract 500-600 barrels of oil per day. The average price of the oil will be around Tk. 8,500 crore,” Nasrul Hamid added.
He said, “If the gas is produced at 20 million cubic feet per day, it will be usable for 15 years next.”
The state minister also said that the extraction of Sylhet-10 gas well at a depth of 2,576 metres has been completed, adding, “The presence of gas was found in three layers from 43 to 100 billion cubic feet. At a depth of around 2,540-2,575 metres, around 25 million cubic feet gas was also discovered. The pressure there stands at 3,500 PSI.”
He said another gas layer was also found at a depth of 2,460 to 2,475 metres from which 25 to 30 million cubic feet gas will be extracted.
He said, another good gas layer is found at 2460-2475 meters and testing is expected to yield 25-30 million cubic feet of gas. Gas presence is found at 2290-2310 m.
In addition, another zone was found at a depth of 1397-1445 meters, where the presence of oil was confirmed by testing on December 8. Initially its API gravity is 29.7 degrees. 35 barrels of oil flow per hour is available at self-pressure. Oil reserve will be known after the test is completed.
Nasrul Hamid said, “If simultaneous production is done at the depth of 2,540 and 2,460 metres, gas will be available for about 8-10 years.
Its value as weighted average value is around Tk 8,500 crore. If production is at the rate of 20 million cubic feet, gas can be extracted from here for more than 15 years.”
Earlier on November 26, the SGFL said that it found approximately 50 billion cubic feet of gas reserves worth about Tk 3,600 crore in a new well (No-10) of the country's oldest gas field at Haripur in Sylhet district.
After the discovery, SGFL Director Mohammad Mizanur Rahman said, “Gas was found in this new well. We think that 15 million cubic feet of gas can be extracted daily from this new well."
The excavation work on the well started in last June. Chinese company Sinopec carried out the excavation at a cost of Tk149 crore. According to SGFL, the well has about 50 billion cubic feet of gas reserves.
Officials concerned said that the monetary value of gas stored in the well is around Tk3,600 crore.
Oil was first discovered in Haripur field back in the late 80s. The authorities back then ran a drilling stamp test to pump out around 500 barrels of the thick oil.
The technique they used, however, was applicable to gas production and not oil. Later, the government decided the field was not commercially viable and it was abandoned.
The first time Bangladesh had struck commercially feasible oil was back in 2012. The oil was discovered in two gas fields in Sylhet.
Currently, about 2,300mmcfd gas is being produced from 21 gas fields in the country, while about 700mmcfd gas is being imported from abroad to meet the demand of about 4,000mmcfd, leaving a deficit of about 1,000mmcfd.
Bangladesh required about 6.7 million tonnes of fuel in fiscal 2021-2022, with the country's fuel consumption rising by up to 8% each year, according to the state-run BPC.
To meet the overall demand, around 700,000 tonnes of fuel are extracted from domestic sources. Meanwhile, Eastern Refinery, the country's only oil refiner, has the capacity to purify 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil every year.
The well Sylhet-7, the much-discussed well in the history of Bangladesh as this was the single oil producing well of the country, was drilled at Haripur in 1986.
After 7 years of more or less uninterrupted production of total 5,60,869 barrels of crude oil, the well (Syl-7) ceased its production on 14 July, 1994 due to gradual decline in well head pressure.
In March 2005, the work was accomplished on the well Syl-7 and was completed as a gas producer with an initial production capacity of 15mmcfd.
Besides, gas was first discovered in Haripur, Sylhet in 1955. At present, there are five gas fields under SGFL - Haripur Gas Field, Rashidpur Gas Field, Chhatak Gas Field, Kailashtila Gas Field and Biyanibazar Gas Field. Among them, the Chhatak Gas Field is abandoned. Of the rest, 14 wells are currently producing about 105 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Sources said the government has planned to explore, dig and re-dig 46 wells in the country to increase gas production to solve the energy crisis. These excavations are expected to be completed by 2025. The wells are expected to increase gas production by 618 million cubic feet.
As part of this plan drilling and re-drilling of 14 wells under SGFL is underway. Three out of Sylhet's 14 wells started production last year. Extraction from well no 2 of Kailashtila started this month.
Before this, three abandoned wells named Sylhet-8, Kailashtila-7 and Biyanibazar-1 under SGFL were re-excavated last year. From these wells, 16 to 18 million cubic feet of gas is being supplied daily to the national grid.