Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration Company has discovered a new reserve of a significant amount of natural gas in Bhola, a district of the country's southern region. The new gas reserve, which is found in Bheduria union of Bhola district, is estimated to have 600 billion cubic feet (BCF) natural gas, local media reports said on Monday (Jan 15).
"With this reservoir, the total gas reserve in Bhola now stands at 1.5 trillion cubic feet (TCF)", Cabinet Secretary Shafiul Alam told a press briefing following the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Prime Minister's Office with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.
The Cabinet Secretary said BAPEX hoped getting more gas in the district, with carrying out more exploration work there.
According to Petrobangla, the country has 26 gas fields with remaining reserve of 13.60 TCF as of January 2016. The new gas field in Bhola will be the country's 27th gas reserve.
The news come at the time while households and businesses of different parts of the country are complaining of dwindling gas supplies.
The country is now also concentrating on import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) which might drive gas prices further up.
