Editorial
Gas at Sundalpur
Bapex should be beefed up
The news that the state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited, in short, Bapex, has struck a gas field at Sundalpur in Noakhali is indeed a breath of fresh air. It could not have come a day later when the country is facing a severe gas crisis of 500 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd).
The discovery has rekindled hope in the south-western districts, especially in the industrial belt of gas-starved Chittagong region.
What is reassuring about this news is that, as the Petrobangla officials hoped, the extraction and use of the gas from this new field can be started from next March.
Though the exact amount of gas in the newly found reserve is yet to be determined, the officials of Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Minerals Corporation or Petrobangla have assessed that the Sundalpur gas field would feed between 10 to 12 million cubit feet of gas per day (mmcfd) to the national grid. Again, the Sundalpur gas field gives us at least a flicker of hope, especially when we are getting depressing signals about the fast depleting gas reserves, particularly from the international oil companies operating in the country.
The latest find by Bapex has brought into bold relief the issue of further building this state-owned company's capacity in terms of its acquisition of rigs and other drilling related equipment. .
Since Bapex is the country's sole organisation for exploring gas and oil, its adequate capacity to efficiently perform the job is imperative for buttressing the nation's internal strength to look after its own mineral resources. It is worthwhile to mention that this is the third such success by Bapex at striking a new gas field. In the past, it discovered gas from Shahbazpur in Bhola in 1995, followed by Saldanadi in Brahmanbaria in 1996.
It is, therefore, expected that the government would now reequip and reenergise Bapex in the knowledge that it is dealing with a highly technology-intensive field.
Given the rising demand for energy, the need for continuing the search for fresh reserves of gas and oil need not be overemphasised. That calls for the government's all out attention.
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