Gas reserve has been found in an abandoned well at the Kailashtila gas field under the Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL) in Golapganj.
Gas extraction from this well will start next week, officials said on Wednesday.
SGFL expects an additional supply of seven million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) from the previously abandoned Kailashtila-2 well.
According to SGFL sources, gas extraction from the well remained stopped for a long time.
The re-excavation of this well started on July 27. Gas was found in this well this week after drilling.
According to sources, the government has planned to explore, dig and re-dig 46 wells in the country to increase gas production aiming to solve the energy crisis.
These excavations are expected to be completed by 2025.
The scheme is expected to increase gas production by 618 mmcfd.
As part of this plan, drilling and re-drilling of 14 wells under SGFL is underway.
Production started last year from three out of 14 wells in Sylhet. Now another well is getting ready for production.
Confirming the discovery of gas in the well, SGFL General Manager (Operation) Engineer Abdul Jalil Pramanik said it will take another week or so to go into production of this well.
He hopes that the gas from this well can be supplied to the national grid line from next week. There is a possibility of getting 7 mmcfd.
He said gas was produced earlier from a layer of this well. Then the production stopped due to water entering this layer. Re-excavation of this temporarily-closed well revealed several more layers. Gas was found there by testing on November 9 and 11.
In addition, it is reported that 70 barrels of condensate can be produced from the by-products obtained from this well along with the gas. The estimated cost for the workover of this well has been fixed at about Tk71.85 crore, which is being done with SGFL’s own funding.
Earlier last year, three abandoned wells namely Sylhet-8, Kailashtila-7 and Beanibazar-1 under SGFL were re-excavated.
From these wells, 16 to 18 mmcf of gas is being supplied daily to the national transmission lines.
The SGFL currently has 13 wells, producing around 98 mmcfd of gas.
In 1955, the first gas was discovered in Haripur, Sylhet. After that, gas fields were discovered one after another.
At present, there are five gas fields under the SGFL. These are Haripur gas field, Rashidpur gas field, Chatak gas field, Kailashtila gas field and Beanibazar gas field. Among them, the Chatak gas field is abandoned.