With Bangladesh's gas potential remaining largely untapped until now due to lack of massive seismic surveys, the energy giant Chevron's interest in new investments in this field mainly exploration is highly commendable.
This has, no doubt, given a glimmer of hope amid severe gas supply crunch to the households and industries, resulting in the significant decline of the industrial output especially exportable products. As a result, economic activities have been conspicuously impeded in the wake of continuous shortages of gas supplies.
Chevron's investment plan in our on-shore gas exploration was disclosed on Tuesday when a delegation of the US-based energy group met with Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus in which Chevron officials expressed satisfaction that the interim government had begun clearing arrears amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. These payments had been stalled for the past two years under the previous government.
As a matter of fact, Chevron has been motivated to invest in new drilling operations in northeastern Bangladesh in the face of increasing gas demand driven by growing economic activities and an improved future business outlook in the country.
This was the view expressed by the Chevron Vice President Frank Cassulo adding that the possible new gas finds would support the economic growth of Bangladesh.
On the other hand, the new discovery will not only raise the local production but also reduce dependency on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the foreign markets which have become volatile due to global conflicts.
Meanwhile, demand for gas has been on the rise with the increasing demand for electricity which is expected to reach over 17,500 megawatts during the next summer. It is because over 60 percent of our electricity is generated using natural gas.
Chevron has long been playing a key role in the exploration and production of natural gas in Bangladesh. The company recently made a new gas discovery at the Bibiyana field which is estimated to be around 1.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF).
With the Bibiyana reserves, the total gas reserves in the country discovered until the present time were estimated at around 28.6 TCF. But most of the reserves have been exhausted. Now only around 9.0 TCF of gas reserves are left.
According to statistics, as of October 2, the country's overall natural gas demand was around 2,664 mmcfd, with local gas fields, including Bibiyana, supplying around 2,284 mmcfd' and the remaining 380 mmcfd coming from outside the country.
We are in belief that Chevron's proposal for new investments in our gas exploration would turn out to be a successful initiative in expanding our total gas reserves in the future.
