Offshore gas exploration is underway: Minister of State for Power
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid said that gas exploration work is going on in the sea If gas is found, it can be extracted after seven to eight years.
The State Minister said all this in response to a supplementary question by Awami League Member of Parliament (MP) Ahmed Hossain in the JS session on Tuesday (May 7).
The Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources said that in 2016-2017, we started preparations for conducting a multi-plan survey of mineral resources or gas extraction in the deep sea. Among them, we are not prepared to conduct Multiplan survey especially for gas exploration. Before that we gave three blocks along Myanmar border to two companies. The amount of gas they thought they'd get from surveying here isn't visible, they found there's less gas, they move. Already the Multiplan survey is over; we have got the results of the two-day survey. We have already moved into a deep seaport. About 17 companies have expressed interest, including giant Chevron and several other large companies. They took today's survey results to beat. We have a meeting with them from Wednesday. Bidding will end in September.
He said, in the middle of next year, we will appoint companies in different blocks for 3D surveys. After investing about 20 to 30 million dollars, if there is gas or oil after 7-8 years, then we can extract that gas or oil.
Stating that the production capacity is more than the demand for electricity in the country, he said that the production capacity is more than the demand for electricity in the country. After assuming responsibility in 2009, the government has taken immediate, short, medium and long term plans for the development of the power sector and is implementing them through close supervision. From January 2009 to the present time, 26 thousand 240 MW electricity has been added to the national grid. As a result, the installed capacity of electricity has increased to 30 thousand 277 MW including captives.
Nasrul Hamid said that although there is no shortfall in power generation capacity according to demand, power generation is not possible at full capacity due to the Ukraine-Russia war and the global energy crisis after the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, there is temporary difficulty in uninterrupted power supply in some places. Apart from this, due to excessive heat and wildfires in some parts of the country, the demand for electricity has increased tremendously. Due to increase in demand, emphasis is also being placed on increasing production. We hope to be able to provide uninterrupted and quality electricity to everyone soon.