Gas found in 3 Sylhet wells over last 3 months, likely adding 28mmcf to national grid

In the past three months, gas has been found in three wells within the resource-rich Sylhet region, opening up the potential to supply an additional 28 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas to the country's national grid.

The latest revelation comes from the Rashidpur-2 well under the Sylhet gas field, where a new layer of gas was uncovered.

State Minister for Energy Nasrul Hamid shared this development on his Facebook handle on Saturday (27 January). 

The well contains around 157 billion cubic feet of gas, having a market value of around Tk10,670 crore.

Nasrul Hamid hopes that 80 lakh cubic feet of gas will be added to the national grid daily from this well within the next 10 days. 

Earlier, on 26 November last year, gas was discovered at well no-10 in the country's oldest Haripur gas field, dug by the Chinese company Sinopec.

Sylhet Gas Field Limited reports that 50 billion cubic feet of gas is stored in this well, with a market value of Tk3,600 crore. 

This discovery is expected to contribute 13 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid.

Additionally, an abandoned well no-2 in Sylhet's Kailashtilla added 70 lakh cubic feet of gas to the national grid on 22 November last year.

Gas exploration in Sylhet dates back to 1955, with five gas fields under the Sylhet Gas Fields Limited—Haripur, Rashidpur, Chhatak, Kailashtilla, and Beanibazar. The ongoing initiative by the government aims to boost gas production, with 105 million cubic feet currently produced from 14 wells across the gas fields.

The initiative, set to be completed by 2025, anticipates adding 618 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid. Currently, the digging and re-digging of 14 wells are underway, with three wells already in production in 2022 and another one came into production in 2023.

Before this, in 2022, three abandoned wells—Sylhet-8, Kailashtila-7, and Beanibazar-1—were redug, contributing around 18 million cubic feet to the national grid.