New reserves of oil and gas found in Sylhet: Nasrul Hamid

A new crude oil reserve that can provide 500-600 barrels a day has been discovered in a newly drilled gas well in the Sylhet-10, said Nasrul Hamid, the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources.

This is the second time crude oil has been found in a country's gas fields after petroleum was discovered in the Haripur Gas Field in 1987.

"This is great news for us in this month of victory," Hamid said at a press briefing today.

Chinese company Sinopec began drilling in Jaintiapur and Gowainghat just two months ago and crude oil was found in the first layer of the well at 1,400 metres of depth.

"The greater news is that we have found oil in the first layer," Hamid added.

The reserve has 8-10 million barrels of oil, the value of which would be about Tk 7,000 crore, according to the data provided by Petrobangla.

The gravity of the oil is 29.7 API (American Petroleum Institute gravity), which is a medium-quality crude oil, according to the authorities of Sylhet Gas Field.

The samples have been sent to the Eastern Refinery and BUET, said Md Mizanur Rahman, the managing director of Sylhet Gas Field.

"We will be able to confirm the quality in a couple of days," he added.

Bangladesh has a demand for 210,000 barrels of oil per day, 90 percent of which are imported.

Meanwhile, gas was found in all four layers, with each layer being deeper than 3,500 metres.

Earlier on November 14, the government announced finding gas in the Sylhet-10 well under the Haripur gas field.

The reserve gas in the well is 43 to 100 billion cubic feet and 20 million cubic feet of gas can be extracted in a day for the next 15 years, Hamid said.

Sinopec had started the drilling in June this year and the total expenditure for the well is around Tk 203 crore, said officials.

It is part of the ongoing move to add around 618 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) by 2025 by drilling 46 wells in different gas fields.

Currently, the local gas fields supply about 1,250 mmcfd of gas against the daily demand of 3,700 mmcfd. About 500-600 mmcfd of gas is being added from LNG imports.