A new gas reserve has been found in Ambarnagar village of Sonaimuri Upazila of Noakhali.
Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) has started the excavation of this new well.
The project has been named Begumganj-4 (West) Appraisal Cum Development Well Drilling Project.
More than 200 engineers and workers are involved with the drilling. The excavation will continue for the next four months, officials said.
Md Asaduzzaman, in-charge of drilling work at the well, said that the drilling rig was officially installed on Monday afternoon. Initially, a target has been set to drill 3,200 metres.
Natural gas is expected to be found in four of its zones. After drilling, 10 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas can be extracted per day from each zone. This gas will be supplied through Bakhrabad Gas Distribution Company Limited, said the official.
“We need more gas to make the country's economy and industrialization more dynamic. The government is giving utmost importance to local energy exploration and production to meet the needs of consumers,” said Asaduzzaman.
The government has set a target of drilling 46 new exploration, development, and workover wells by 2025, the official added.
According to Bapex, the first well was found in Begumganj in this area of Noakhali in 1976. A second well was discovered in 1978 and was drilled. But later, no gas was found in those two wells.
A third well was discovered in 2013; after drilling, the well went into gas production and in 2018, the same well was worked over and is now supplying 8mmcf of gas to the national grid per day.
In March, Bapex also found gas in the Sundarlpur-3 gas field in Noakhali and started drilling to assess the actual reserves and recoverable amount of gas.
