State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit said on Saturday the government would add 82 million cubic feet or more of gas to the national grid within its next 180-day work plan, as it inaugurated well No 5 at the Srikail Gas Field in Cumilla.
He made the remarks after opening the well at Mokhlispur under Bangra Bazar police station in Muradnagar upazila.
The well will add 8 million cubic feet per day, or MMCFD, to the national grid through trial gas production, taking total daily supply from the five wells of the Srikail Gas Field in Muradnagar to 17 million cubic feet.
Amit said the previous government had left the country’s energy sector exposed by making it dependent on imports, leaving Bangladesh vulnerable to global shocks and financial losses.
“We want to achieve self-sufficiency by extracting gas from our own sources,” he said.
“If we become self-sufficient and self-reliant, we will be able to overcome any kind of risk more easily.”
He said the previous administration had crippled BAPEX and that the country was now paying the price, adding that the government wanted to strengthen the company’s capacity and allow it to work independently.
The state minister also said the government wanted to achieve self-sufficiency in the energy sector and expected domestic fields to play a central role in meeting future demand.
“Five years from now, the country’s gas demand will reach 4,500 million cubic feet, and we will develop the capacity to meet that demand from our own fields,” he said.
Among those present were Power and Energy Secretary Saiful Islam, Petrobangla Chairman Md Erfanul Haque, Petrobangla Director (Operations) Rafiqul Islam, BAPEX Managing Director Engineer Fazlul Haque, Project Director Mozammel Haque, Muradnagar Upazila Nirbahi Officer Abdur Rahman, Muradnagar Circle Additional Superintendent of Police Kamruzzaman and Bangra Bazar police station Officer-in-Charge Abdul Quader.
Srikail Gas Field well-5 Sub-Project Director Md Abdul Batin said drilling began on 28 September last year and was completed in January.
Gas extraction from the well started on 14 March he said, adding that the well holds an estimated 40 billion cubic feet of gas.
