Chevron commences natural gas production in Bangladesh

The US oil and energy company, Chevron has started producing gas from two new wells in the Bangladeshi state of Sylhet, aimed at easing the country’s chronic energy shortages.

The firm, which is the largest foreign investor in the Bangladesh’s energy sector, will initially produce around 130 million cu ft of gas per day from the Jalalabad field, located 280 km (175 miles) from the capital Dhaka.

The activity is said to be the culmination of a long drilling campaign that Chevron started in November 2014. Another well at the field is expected to begin production at the start of next year.

Discovered in 1989, the Jalalabad gas field first came on-line in 1999, and has since been performing with an uninterrupted efficiency of 99.9% since 2001.

Chevron Bangladesh is supplying more than 50% of the total gas output of 1.5 billion cu ft per day, which significantly buffers the country’s current gas shortage estimated at up to

500 million cu ft/day.