State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said each of the companies of Petrobangla will be given a target to drill wells in gas fields for hydrocarbon exploration, and if they fail the officials concerned will be removed from their posts.
“Nobody will be spared and no persuasion will be accepted against any failure,” Nasrul Hamid told a seminar titled “Gas Demand-Supply Scenario: Scope of Seismic Survey and Enhancement of Drilling Activities to Expedite Hydrocarbon Production” organized by Petrobangla at its auditorium in the capital on Thursday.
Expressing frustration over the activities of Petrobangla, he said there is a huge deficiency in the organization and its subordinate bodies to work as a team.
“They do not work in a coordinated manner. As a result, sometimes gas is found in a well, but the processing plant remains unprepared to supply the gas to the national grid,” he said.
“Sometimes it takes 4 years to get gas from a well to the national grid,” he added.
He said: “The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and other entities in the power sector have been successful in achieving the goal of ensuring 100% electricity access as they worked as a team.”
The seminar, with Petrobangla Chairman Zanendra Nath Sarker in the chair, was also addressed by Energy and Mineral Resources Division Secretary Md Nurul Alam.
Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company Managing Director Anwarul Islam and Petrobangla General Manager Meherul Hasan gave presentations on the topic of the seminar.
Nasrul Hamid said Petrobangla planned to drill 48 wells to produce 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) while the country’s demand will go up by 2,000 mmcfd.
“We are all looking at Petrobangla to see effective results of its plan… there are huge prospects in the gas sector,” he added.
He said the country has many inefficient captive power plants where the efficiency is 20%, while some new power plants are installed with 62% efficiency.
“If we can divert gas to those efficient new power plants, power production cost will come down by 70%,” he noted.
Petrobangla officials in their presentation showed that it plans to drill 100 wells across the country from which 1,500 mmcfd of gas will be produced by 2027 when gas demand will go up to 6,000 mmcfd.