New gas reserves have been discovered in the Kailashtila-8 well in Sylhet. The well was drilled by Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (Bapex) to a depth of 3,438-3,447 metres in the Horizon-4 layer.
The government expects that 21 million cubic feet of gas per day will be added to the national grid from this well, a press release by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said on Friday.
The gas reserve at this depth is estimated to be between 25 and 40 billion cubic feet, with a market value of Tk 1,620 crore, calculated at Tk 22.87 per cubic metre.
However, the entire Kailashtila structure holds a recoverable gas reserve of 1,900 billion cubic feet.
Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) plans to construct a gas-gathering pipeline within the next three months to facilitate this supply.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that the gas was discovered through a work-over of the well.
According to ministry information, SGFL started digging well-8 on January 11, 2024, and reached a depth of 3,500 metres. After nearly four and a half months, gas was successfully discovered.
Nasrul Hamid also mentioned that the government has taken the initiative to dig and work over different wells and prospective areas for mineral resources, especially natural gas.
The Kailashtila gas field, discovered in 1962 and operational since 1983, currently has seven gas wells, with SGFL extracting gas at a rate of 28 million cubic feet per day for the national grid.
