Drilling of Kailashtila well-7 begins

Drilling of the Kailashtila well 7 (KTL 7) at the Sylhet Gas Field in Golapganj upazila of Sylhet began yesterday, 13 months after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally laid the field's foundation.

Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company (Bapex) is entrusted with the drilling at a cost of Tk 218.18 crore, which is likely to be completed in three months, said Harun Ur Rashid Molla, project director of KTL-7 and general manager of the state-run Sylhet Gas Fields Limited (SGFL).

The new well has a reserve of 109 million barrels, of which 44 million barrels of oil and 658 billion cubic feet of gas are recoverable.

'Since it is targeted as an oil well, about 500 barrels of oil and 25 mmcfd gas would be produced every day', said Molla.

The project director said it will be the second oil well since the country's first oil well was drilled at Haripur of Sylhet Gas field in Jaintapur upazila of Sylhet in the 1980s.

Haripur field, however, stopped producing oil in 1994.

Petrobangla Chairman Professor Hossain Mansur formally inaugurated the drilling while Bapex Managing Director Mahbub Sarwar was also present.

The delay in starting the drilling was mainly caused by deferred installment of the rig, Mansur told newsmen.

It will take three to four months to complete the drilling, he added.

In 2011-12, Bapex had carried out 3D surveys in Kailashtila, Rashidpur and Haripur and found oil and gas reserves in several zones below the gas structures in Kailashtila and Haripur, and only gas in Rashidpur.