State-owned companies Petrobangla and Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) have taken various initiatives to deal with the ongoing gas crisis. Due to lack of capacity of the two companies, Russian multinational company Gazprom is being given the task of drilling five wells in Bhola again. However, they are getting work at an additional cost in these wells invented by BAPEX. It was also alleged that the Russian company was given work without tender.
BAPEX sources said they spent a maximum of Tk 80 crore to drill a well. On the other hand, Gazprom last got the work of drilling three wells in 2020 and charged more than Tk 180 crore for each. The compamy has got all the wells drilled without tender.
It has been decided to give work to the company under the special provisions of the Department of Power and Energy. In the meantime, Russia's state oil and gas exploration company Gazprom has also made commercial and financial proposals. The Russian company is expected to be awarded the well by the end of December. This has been confirmed by high-level sources in BAPEX.
According to sources, the Energy Department has earlier sent a letter to the Cabinet Committee on Procurement seeking permission to drill five gas wells with Russian companies under the 'Electricity Energy Fast Supply Act-2010'. Gazprom has been drilling gas extraction wells in Bangladesh for more than a decade. The company has already successfully drilled 20 wells and received gas in each well. The new wells that Gazprom is getting are Shahbazpur-5, Shahbazpur-7, Shahbazpur North East-1, Bhola North-3 and Bhola North-4 of BAPEX in Bhola. The work will be completed by 2025.
Gazprom International has achieved significant success in the discovery and development of gas fields in Bangladesh through its effective and efficient well construction activities. The company has successfully completed the construction of 202 wells in Bangladesh from 2010 to 2023. A significant amount of about 4.5 TCF of gas has been discovered through drilling of 20 wells. Eighteen of these 20 wells are now supplying 300 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid. In 13 years, the company has produced a total of 0.6 BCF of gas for Bangladesh. Gazprom International's well construction cost averages $17.3824 million, which is much more affordable than the BAPEX well construction cost (average cost is $30 million) and other IOC (Shell, Unicol, Chevron, Tullow, Crisnergy) well construction costs (average).
According to Petrobangla and BAPEX sources, about 100 million cubic feet of gas per day can be supplied to the national grid from these wells.
After the Ukraine-Russia crisis, the government is trying to increase domestic gas production due to the country's reserve deficit. Earlier this year, Petrobangla planned to drill 46 wells by 2024 to increase gas production on land. The target is to increase the production of 618 million cubic feet of gas from these wells.
Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarkar said a policy decision has been taken to give Gazprom the task of drilling five wells. Their rigs are in Bangladesh and they will be able to start drilling wells in a short time.
Bapex Managing Director Md Shoaib said the country urgently needs gas. All of BAPEX's excavators are working. Wells are also being drilled in parallel with Gazprom to increase the supply of gas. We will give the excavation work before the elections.
Geologist Badrul Imam said, "BAPEX has discovered gas with difficulty, it does not matter for them to produce it. In addition to tenders, exploration work can be given in addition to various considerations. However, it is not at all logical to drill wells by hiring foreign contractors in BAPEX's discovered gas field. It will cost more than twice as much. It is also against the national interest."
Meanwhile, the work of drilling five wells in Bhola is being done as part of the plan to drill and re-drill 46 gas exploration wells by 2024. Of these, BAPEX is drilling 20 wells, Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited 12 and Sylhet Gas Fields Limited 14.
ARS.
