Bangladesh has been
blessed with a heaven of natural resources among which natural gas has been
proved to be a potential endowment for which it has already been identified to
be the hub of energy in the South Asian region.
Bangladesh adopted a number of policies since the beginning of 1990s to
facilitate the expansion of the private sector and increase the inflow of
foreign investments in the energy sector. Due to the growing interests of the
Multinational
Corporations (MNCs)
in the energy sector of Bangladesh, there had been a tremendous optimism over
Bangladesh's economic future. Bangladesh looked set to emerge as “South Asia's
next success story."
The exploration
activity of petroleum products is over 100 years old in Bangladesh first
exploration activity started with some topographic maps of Chittagong Hill
Tracts and some simplified surveys were done. The first exploration started
from 1914 to 1933 by Burma Oil Company (BOC). The second of phase petroleum
exploration began after partition of Indian subcontinent.
Three international
oil companies and the state owned oil company (OGDC) were active in different
part of the country. During phase II, Shell Oil discovered the most
successful drilling operation;
Rashidpur, Kailashtila, Titas,
Habigonj and Bakhrabad
gas fields were discovered.
After the
independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the petroleum exploration gathered pace. In
this period, the first offshore gas field, Kutubdia was discovered. The country
was first divided into 23
major blocks including
offshore area. During
1995-2000, the foreign companies Fig.2 drilled 10
exploratory wells and discovered 1 offshore gas field (Sangu in 1996 by Cairns
Energy) and two onshore gas fields (Bibyana in 1997 and Moulovibazar in 1998).
After some more successful drilling by Tullow Oil, Bangura gas field was
discovered in 2004. BAPEX, (Petrobangla
exploratory subsidiary) drilled two wells and discovered two gas fields, i.e.
Shahbazpur in 1995 and Saldanadi in 1996. BAPEX drilled one well in late 2004
and announced discovery of Srikail gas field in Comilla in January 2005. It is
very interesting data that the national oil companies of Bangladesh have a discovery
success rate over 80% Fig.3 compared to the multinational oil companies.
Digital multi fold seismic data acquisition started in 1977, when Prakla was
engaged under the German technical Assistance Program. In 1978 Petrobangla
started acquiring multi fold analog seismic data, Fig.4 but in 1979 it moved
into the digital domain. During 1986-87 Shell recorded over 1,500 km of multi
fold data and these are available in BAPEX Data Center.
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