Bangladesh announces discovery of new gas field

The Bangladeshi government has announced the discovery of a new gas field in the southern district of Bhola.

Bangladeshi State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid on Monday formally announced Bhola’s Ilisha-1 as the country’s 29th gas field.

Ilisha- 1’s daily production is around 20 million cubic feet, said Hamid, adding that it’s believed that it has a reserve of 200 billion cubic feet of gas. The whole Bhola area including Ilisha-1 has a reserve of 3 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The gas field was discovered by the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company (BAPEX), which discovered over a dozen small- to medium-sized gas fields.

Bangladesh previously had 28 gas fields, with the latest one in Zakiganj in Sylhet, some 240 km northeast of the capital Dhaka, discovered in August 2021.

The country’s 27th gas field was also discovered in Bheduria of Bhola, an offshore island covering an area of 3,403.48 sq km and about 205 km south of the capital Dhaka, which boasts hundreds of billions of cubic feet reserves.