No improvement is visible even though the gas field has been opened again and again. 10 million cubic feet of gas is going to the national grid from Sundalpur field

Dhaka Times Report. After the news of gas supply to the national grid came last month, the state-owned company Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) has again started supplying gas to the national grid from the Sundalpur gas field in Noakhali. On March 17 at 12 noon, one crore cubic feet of gas has been supplied to the national grid from this field. But the demand is not being met despite increasing the supply of gas again and again. Now gas supply to houses is stopped. Even though the new connection is closed, the connection of the houses which have the previous line ie extension is still kept closed.

Petrobangla Chairman Professor Hossain Mansoor said in this context, 10 million or one crore cubic feet of gas is being supplied to the national grid on an experimental basis from a well in this field. The supply will be gradually increased from 12 to 15 million cubic feet. Hussain Mansoor said that Bapex, a subsidiary of Petrobangla, has been able to supply gas from a new field after 15 years. This is a big achievement for us. He said that the new gas added to the grid will be given to the Chittagong region, which will be used for power generation including industries. It should be noted here that the country is currently producing 200 million cubic feet of gas against the daily demand of 250 million cubic feet. As such, there is a deficit of 50 million cubic feet. On December 21 of last year, exploratory well digging was started in the new field in Shahjadpur village of Companyganj upazila of Noakhali on three and a half acres of land. Eight months later, on August 17, experimental gas extraction began. In this case, BAPEX found gas 1 thousand 400 meters below the surface. Before this, extractable gas was not found anywhere else in the country at such a shallow depth. In Habiganj, gas was found 1,500 meters below the surface. With Sundalpur field, the total number of gas fields in the country is now 24. The number of operational wells stands at 82 as new wells have started production.

But despite the discovery of gas fields one after another, the demand for gas is increasing day by day so much that there is still a shortage of gas despite the demand. Gas supply especially to houses has become very important. Moreover, there is a delicate situation in the production sector of the country due to lack of gas supply in industries. So the government should take immediate action in this regard.