Saturday, April 2, 2005
Unocal to invest 230 mn to develop gas field in Bangladesh
Press Trust of India
Dhaka, April 2, 2005
Unocal has started work on a 230-million dollar project to produce gas from Bangladesh's second largest field and supply the country's state-owned petroleum corporation, a company spokesman said today.
"We have started development of the Bibiyana gas field," Naser Ahmed, external affairs manager of the US-based energy giant, said. "The company already signed an agreement with the state-owned Petrobangla and expect to produce 200 million cubic feet (six million cubic metres) of gas a day from the fourth quarter of 2006."
Unocal was one of the first foreign energy companies to start drilling for natural gas after the government opened the sector to foreign investment in the mid-1990s.
The company is the largest private supplier of gas to Petrobangla and provides almost 15 percent of Bangladesh's natural gas requirements.
Bangladesh has proven recoverable gas reserves of 13 trillion cubic feet, which are expected to last until 2020. More than three trillion cubic feet have already been extracted, according to official figures.
Development of the reserves has been slowed because the country, one of the poorest in the world, said it wants to use the gas for internal needs and not for export to other countries.
The United States and other major donor countries say Bangladesh should spur development of its gas industry by allowing exports to bring in much-needed income.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.