Gas May Be Found Close to Dhaka: Bapex Prepares to Drill a Well in Manikganj, Buys a New Rig

Gas may be found close to Dhaka — after Narayanganj, the Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (Bapex) is now preparing to drill a well in Manikganj. Amid the country's energy crisis, those concerned believe that finding new gas near the capital could bring major relief to the supply situation.

The information has come from a working paper of a meeting signed by Petrobangla Chairman Abdul Mannan on 17 October. The paper says an exploration well is planned in Manikganj in search of new gas near Dhaka, and the well is planned to be drilled in the next fiscal year.

Earlier, Bapex drilled a well in Narayanganj in search of oil and gas. But although the presence of gas was initially claimed there, gas extraction was not possible later as water entered the well. The well is now being worked over.

A Bapex official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said five million cubic feet of gas per day is hoped to be obtained from this Narayanganj well. In his words, in this crisis even five million cubic feet of gas means a lot to Bapex. So, alongside Manikganj, the agency does not want to let go of the Narayanganj prospect either.

For the Manikganj drilling, a new 2,000-horsepower drilling machine, or rig, is being purchased. The plan to drill the Manikganj-1 well came up at a meeting of the project implementation committee held on 6 October to review the progress of Bapex's rig purchase project.

According to the meeting minutes, after the new rig is supplied, there is a plan to complete the rig's commissioning and trial activities under the Manikganj-1 well drilling project. The work of preparing the well drilling project proposal (DPP) is under way, and those concerned have been instructed to finish it quickly.

The meeting was told that an international tender has been invited to buy Bapex's new 2,000-horsepower rig. After tender evaluation, the purchase proposal is under process for approval by the cabinet committee on government purchases. Under the tender terms, 13 months are set for supplying the rig.

As a result, collecting the rig on schedule, commissioning it and completing drilling preparations have become important for implementing the project. The meeting discussed the progress of the Manikganj-1 drilling project and the schedule for commissioning the new rig.

The meeting also noted that if there is a delay in preparing the DPP and other preparations, completing the rig's commissioning and trial activities on schedule could be challenging. In other words, keeping coordination between the paperwork and the machine's arrival is now the project's big test.

If the gas prospects in both Manikganj and Narayanganj can be utilised, an opportunity may arise to increase the supply of domestic gas in the capital and surrounding regions. If gas is found in Manikganj, a possibility of gas supply to the capital and nearby areas will be created, the working paper noted.

However, those concerned remind that even if geological surveys indicate the presence of gas somewhere, it cannot be called a gas discovery until a well is drilled and testing is done. To confirm Manikganj's gas reserves and production potential, one must wait for the drilling and the subsequent test results.

A concerned Bapex official said the same type of geological structure has been seen in Narayanganj, Manikganj and Mobarakpur in Sujanagar, Pabna. At Mobarakpur, Bapex stopped drilling a gas well in 2014 because of excessive pressure. A new well will be drilled there too, and a Chinese contractor firm has already been given the work for it.

All in all, drilling the Manikganj-1 well in the next fiscal year is now at the centre of Bapex's plans. If the rig purchase approval, DPP finalisation and commissioning schedule proceed properly, a new chapter in gas exploration near the capital may begin.