Kailashtila finally chosen for NGL Fractionation Plant

Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Limited (RPGCL), a concern of Petrobangla, floated an international tender last week for design, installation and commissioning of a 110 MTD capacity plant under turnkey basis.

The work also includes construction of facilities for storage, loading stations and metering, RPGCL sources said here yesterday.

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The proposed plant will produce Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Motor Spirit (MS), High Speed Diesel (HSD) from NGL (natural gas liquified) and condensate, the officials said.

Fate of the said plant remained uncertain during the last three years though an international tender was floated in 2001 and six firms were short-listed.

The controversy arose when a proposal was made to set up the proposed plant at Ahuganj in Brahmanbaria district and supply of the condensate to the plant from Kailashtila through a 178 kilometre pipeline.

However, the authorities cancelled the idea due to numerous incidents pilferage of condensate from the pipeline between the Kailashtila and Ashuganj.

Sources said over 100 such incidents took place in the last one year. The latest incident took place in Singpon in Moulvibazar, where the pipeline caught during alleged pilferage. Preliminary estimate said condensate worth at least Tk 15 lakh were burnt in the fire that rose up to four feet from the ground and spread over six acres of land.

The proposed fractionation plant will utilise the huge quantity of NGL, which is found in good percentage in the raw gas, produced by the six gas fields in Golapganj-Beanibazar region, unlike in other gas fields in the country, the sources said. Such gas is called wet gas.

Every day, the gas fields in Sylhet region, as a by-product of gas, produce a huge quantity of NGL, which is being burnt out for long years.

About 3000 barrels of NGL is being burnt out every day from the gas wells in Kailashtila (Golapganj) and another two in Beanibazar, they said.

The gas produced in the two Beanibazar fields has the highest 'wet' content.

Sixteen barrels of condensate is available in one million CFT gas of Beanibazar Gas Field while 13 barrels are found in one million cft gas of Kailashtila Gas Field, they added.

In 2000, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources conducted a feasibility study and field survey in Golapganj and Beanibazar upazilas, to select a site for a fractionation plant.

A six-men body headed by the Patrobangla Secretary and having representatives from Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), LP Gas Limited, Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL), RPGCL and Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Limited (BGFCL) also visited the probable sites.

The approximate expenditure for the plant was fixed at US $ 30 million that time. Now, the expenditure will be higher, the officials said.

Works on the project was scheduled to begin in late 2001.

They told The Daily Star that Golapganj-Beanibazar region is the best site for the proposed plant.