Tullow appoints Bangora field to Bapex

Irish gas exploration and production company Tullow Oil has appointed state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Company (Bapex) to produce gas at the Bangora field, about 100 km south-east of Dhaka, a senior official has said.
"Tullow has appointed us to produce gas from its non-operative Well-3 at the Bangora field in Comilla," said Muhammad Imaduddin, managing director of Bapex. Tullow planned to boost production at the field by 30 mm cf of gas per day, he said.
"We consider the deal as an opportunity for Bapex to acquaint itself and get experienced to work with any international oil firm," he told.

This is for the first time the Bangladeshi energy company has been contracted by an international oil explorer. Imaduddin said the rig and other equipments had already moved to the well site and work would begin.
"It might need a month for us to produce gas." The Block 9 gas field is producing about 100 mm cfpd of gas from its three wells at present. Although Tullow developed Well-3 at Bangora in October last year, it could not begin production due to technical problems.

Tullow has a 30 % share in gas-prone Block 9 with 60 % of shares owned by Canada's Niko Resources and the remaining 10 % by Bapex, officials said. Bapex is able to provide specialised services including geological and geophysical prospecting, basin analysis, prospect evaluation, exploration and development drilling, work-over activities and laboratory analyses for the development and production of hydrocarbon resources, Imaduddin said.
Other foreign companies exploring and producing gas in Bangladesh are US supermajor Chevron, the UK's Cairn Energy, French giant Total and Australia's Santos.