Drilling starts at Shahbajpur East-1 well

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Ltd (Bapex), Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL) and Sylhet Gas Field Ltd (SGFL) have inked an agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom for drilling 10 wells. Of the wells, the Bapex, a Petrobangla subsidiary, owns four wells (Shahbazpur-3 and 4, Semutang-6 and Begumganj-3), says a press release. . Srikail 4 well was drilled by Gazporm, which has already completed 15 wells, among them Bapex has 5 wells and the other two companies have 10 wells. The Bapex has planned to dril 108 wells (53 exploration wells, 35 development wells and 20 work-over wells) to provide 1000 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid by 2021 for the implimentation of short, medium and long-term gas production plans. In order to implement Vision 2021, the prime minister gave an approval on 10 special initiative projects taken up by Bapex on 12-05-2016 under the “ Increasing supply of electricity and fuel (Special provisions) Act, 2010”. Among the 10 projects, the plan for drilling 23 exploration wells, 2 development wells and 3 work over wells under the Rupkolpo-1 to Rupkolpo-7 within the tenure of the government. In this regard, Bapex has recruited three group of contractors on the turn-key basis for drilling 13 exploration wells. Two exploration wells (Shahbazpur East-1 and Bhola North-1) and two work-over wells have been planned to be drilled under the Rupkolpo 4 drilling project. On May 5, 2016, the premier had approved the drilling of the two wells. In the context, Bapex’s Addendum- 6 has been signed with Gazporm, with a contract value of $ 33.2 million. Under the agreement, the drilling of Shahbajpur East-1 well was inaugurated yesterday.