Staff Correspondent
Petrobangla has continued to allow the US company, Chevron to extract more than 450 million cubic feet of gas per day from the Bibiyana gas field ignoring the warning of its expert committee that the gas reservoir will be damaged if production exceeds 450mmcfd.
Sources in Petrobangla said that the officials of the state-run Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation had virtually taken no steps to implement the recommendations which the expert committee, headed by the then director Maqbul-E-Elahi, had submitted in the second week of November.
Petrobangla also did not forward the report to the energy and mineral resources division, sources in the division said.
The committee, formed by Petrobangla to review the reserve of Bibiyana gas field, operated by Chevron, said that with the proved gas reserve of 2.51 trillion cubic feet the daily gas production from the field should not exceed 450mmcfd.
But Chevron is extracting between 450mmcfd and 500mmcfd currently ‘posing a threat of early damage’ to the reservoir.
‘Over extraction from the field will bring serious consequences. The offshore Sangu gas field and the Bakhrabad gas field are two prime examples of how the gas fields are damaged because of over extraction,’ said an expert from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Even after getting the committee report, Petrobangla on December 1 revised the daily gas production capacity from the field and increased it to 500 mmcfd from 450mmcfd ignoring the report.
The expert committee after reviewing the report on ‘reserve certification of the Bibiyana field’, prepared by Chevron-appointed consultant Ryder Scott Company of the USA, accepted the RSC report which says that the Bibiyana gas field has a 1P or proved gas reserve of 2.51 trillion cubic feet.
The committee, however, said it did not consider the 2P or proved-plus-probable reserve estimation acceptable as the US consultant had not performed any economic analysis of the reserves. The RSC said the field had a 2P reserve of around 4.42tcf.
‘Considering the proved reserve, daily production rate from the Bibiyana field should be based on 1P reserve (including both developed and undeveloped reserve) not exceeding 450mmcfd as obtained from Ryder Scott Company’s 1P reserve forecast,’ the committee said in its report.
It appears from the RSC review that up to the third year the average field production per day, without any well re-completion works, will be around 387mmcfd and 508mmcfd for 1P and 2P respectively, said the committee.
‘Besides, sustainable production from the field at the rate of ±550mmcfd would be dependent on the success of re-completion of a number of wells after 4 years of production.’
Before reviewing the field performance for the next 4 to 5 years, no production should be based on 2P reserve and the production rate should be based on 1P reserve forecast, the committee suggested.
Petrobangla chairman, Jalal Ahmed told New Age on Tuesday that they were ‘working on the report.’ ‘We will have to change the Gas Purchase and Sales Agreement for Bibiyana if we implement the committee report. We have already discussed the gas production issue with Chevron. It will take time,’ he said.
Sources in the seven-member expert committee, however, said that there was no need to change the GPSA and Petrobangla could easily implement the recommendations if it wanted.
Replying to New Age queries, Chevron said in August that it was supplying gas in ‘full compliance’ with the production sharing contract and the GPSA it had signed with Petrobangla and the government.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
