Around 12.5 million cubic feet of gas per day will be added to Bangladesh’s national grid from the Titas-28 well of Bangladesh Gas Fields Company Ltd (BGFCL) on Saturday, officials said.

A further 67.5 million cubic feet per day of gas could be added to the national grid within the next three to four months from four more wells at the Titas and Bakhrabad gas fields, according to officials concerned.

The additional supply is being brought online as part of BGFCL’s efforts to increase gas production from domestic sources through the drilling of new wells and development of existing gas fields, in line with the BNP government’s pledge to boost the country’s domestic gas supply.

BGFCL officials said drilling and development work is progressing on Titas-28, Titas-29, Titas-30, Titas-31 and Bakhrabad-11 wells. Once the work on these wells is completed, around 67.5 million cubic feet per day of additional gas could be supplied to the national grid within three to four months.

BGFCL General Manager (Operations) Engineer Md Ashraful Alam said the Titas-28 well would be inaugurated on Saturday by the State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. “The well will be connected to the national grid immediately after the inauguration,” he said.

This will help increase gas supplies from domestic sources and reduce pressure arising from dependence on imported gas, he added.

Engineer AKM Jasim Uddin, project director of the ‘Drilling of Four Appraisal-cum-Development Wells at Titas and Kamta Fields’ project, said drilling of Titas-28 had been completed about a month ago.

The well has a depth of around 13,000 feet and will be connected to the national grid immediately after its inauguration, he said.

He said work on drilling Titas-28, Titas-29, Titas-30 and Kamta-2 wells began at a cost of around Tk 800 crore.

“Of these, Titas-28 will go into production on Saturday. We are also planning to complete the other wells quickly and supply gas to the national grid,” he said.

Md Mahmudul Nabab, project director of BGFCL’s Deep Exploration Gas Well Drilling Project, said drilling of the Titas-31 deep exploration well began on April 19 this year.

The drilling depth has already reached around 4,920 metres, against a target depth of 5,600 metres, plus or minus around 100 metres, he said.

“Because of its depth, drilling and subsequent activities at the well are taking comparatively more time,” he said. If no geological complications arise, work on Titas-31 is expected to be completed within the next two to three months, Nabab said.

If the well is successfully completed, it could supply around 15 million cubic feet of gas per day to the national grid, he added.

Nabab also said the main drilling work on Titas-29 had already been completed, while logging and other ancillary activities were under way.

The well could be made ready for production within the next one to one-and-a-half months, he said, adding that Titas-29 could potentially supply between 10 million and 15 million cubic feet of gas per day to the national grid.

Work on Titas-30 is also planned to be completed within the next three to four months.

BGFCL expects the well to produce around 10 million to 15 million cubic feet of gas per day.