Fresh gas found in abandoned Sylhet well

Sylhet Gas Fields Limited yesterday discovered gas reserves in an abandoned well in Sylhet's Beanibazar.

Shahinur Rahman, the managing director of the company, said it might be possible to produce seven to eight million cubic feet of gas and about 100 barrels of condensate from the well called Beanibazar-1 every day.

The volume he mentioned is 0.7 to 0.8 percent of the total gas produced by the three state owned companies.

"Presence of gas has been confirmed by testing. Testing will continue for the next three days," he added.

The well was abandoned in 2016 after 35 billion cubic feet of gas was extracted from a depth of 3,450 metres.

The company started the well workover on September 10 amid the current gas shortage.

"A 3D seismic survey project has been taken for Beanibazar upazila," he said, adding that plans to dig new wells would be made later.

The company also has plans to start workovers of Kailashtila-2, Rashidpur-2, Rashidpur-5 and Haripur-7 wells by the end of 2023, he said.

Industries have been forced to cut production by as much as 50 percent because of an energy crisis that began months ago as rising import bills forced the country to lower gas purchases from international sources.

Business associations on multiple occasions expressed concerns over power outages and inadequate gas supplies.