Technical fault halts drilling at Mubarakpur

Drilling an exploration well in Mubarakpur to detect oil and gas reserves there has remained suspended for two months after a rig tilted sideways on the drilling pad.

Officials of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited, which is exploring the well, said the rig might have tilted due to a fault in the construction of the pad.  

Shahab Uddin, Bapex general manager (drilling), said at first a technical glitch forced the company to suspend the drilling. “After fixing the problem, we found that the rig tilted on sideways,” he said.

The official said the issue had already been resolved and they would resume their work there soon.

Bapex started drilling the well in April last year.

The rig, Bijoy-12, was deployed in the well later, aiming to drill up to 4,500 metres for detecting oil and gas reserves there. The trouble began after it had dug around 3,500 metres.

The drilling operations would take another two months to be completed, said officials concerned.

On completion of a five-year joint seismic survey by Petrobangla and German company Prakla Seismos in 1984, Mubarakpur was identified as a prospective site.

Later, Bapex started pushing for the exploration, considering gas crisis in the country.

In March 2009, the government approved a fund of Tk. 89.26 core for the project---Tk 61.84 core of which came as foreign fund.

Work at the project site began in 2010 after Bapex acquired 8.8 acres of land at Paglachandipur and Bishnapur in Santhia upazila of Pabna.