Bangladesh discovers new gas field in southern district of Bhola

Bangladesh says it has discovered a new natural gas field in the southern district of Bhola.

The gas field is estimated to have 700 billion cubic feet of reserves, Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam told the media in Dhaka on Monday.

The new gas field has been found beside the existing Shahbazpur gas field in the island district.

Alam said the cabinet was informed about the discovery during its weekly meeting on Monday.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company or BAPEX said the new gas field is located 3.5km east of Shahbazpur.

"A few days ago, the existence of natural gas was found. After further scrutiny, it was confirmed today,” BAPEX Managing Director Md Nowshad Islam told bdnews24.com.

Replying to a query on the size of the reserves, he said, "There's no doubt that it's a big gas field. In recent times, a gas field like this has not been discovered. We can confirm the amount of reserves after further scrutiny."

The existing Shahbazpur gas field produces around 35 million cubic feet or cft each day, according to BAPEX. The reserves of this field are estimated at 35 billion cft.

According to state-owned oil and gas corporation PetroBangla, the proven reserve of the 26 gas fields in Bangladesh stands at 13.6 trillion cft as of Jan 1, 2016.

Bangladesh produces 2.7 billion cft natural gas a day against a demand of 3.4 billion.

A little over 58 percent of the gas goes to the power plants, 17 percent in factories, 11 percent for household, 7 percent in fertilizer manufacturing units and another 6 percent for automobiles.

To meet the increasing demand, Bangladesh has decided to import liquefied natural gas or LNG and has already started construction of terminals.