State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid MP said that a policy decision has been taken to give gas block-8 consisting of Tangail and Jamalpur districts and block number 11 consisting of Sunamganj, Sherpur and Mymensingh areas to Chevron.
The State Minister confirmed this information while talking to Barta24.com in his office room at the Secretariat on Monday (September 25).
In response to a question, the state minister said that the formula of the agreement has not been finalized yet whether to extend the previously executed agreement with them or have a new PSC (Production Sharing Contract). Chevron has been asked to submit a full proposal, which will finalize the formula.
Although the matter was discussed in the middle of last year, Eric M. Walker, president and managing director of Chevron Bangladesh, submitted a written application in December. The company had submitted Block-8, Block-11 and Rashidpur gas field development proposals under the Special Provisions Act. However, Nasrul Hamid confirmed that the Rashidpur gas field is not being given.
BAPEX, a state-owned organization, has carried out a two-dimensional survey in Block-8 and a three-dimensional survey in a part of Block No. 11. Prospective Block No. 11 is estimated to have 2.47 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. Chevron Bangladesh will conduct two-dimensional and three-dimensional surveys in these blocks. If the results of the survey are positive, the company will proceed to the next step (well drilling).
Multinational company Chevron Bangladesh is extracting gas from a total of 3 blocks. They have Bibiana gas field in block-12, Jalalabad gas field in block-13 and Moulvibazar gas field in block-14. Bibiana is one of the largest gas fields in the country. According to the calculation of gas extraction on September 24, 1080.1 million cubic feet of gas was extracted from the gas field. On that day, a total of 1280.69 million gas was extracted from 3 gas fields owned by Chevron Bangladesh which is 44.3 percent of the total gas produced in Bangladesh.