Drilling begins at the Shahbazpur field

On 7 May, the company began drilling the Shahbazpur-3 well located in the Shahbazpur field on Bhola Island in the Padma River delta. Drilling is planned up to a depth of 3,893 metres.

This is already the seventh well out of a total of ten that Gazprom International is to build by the end of this year under its drilling contract with BAPEX and BGFCL/SGFL, subsidiaries of Bangladesh's state oil company PetroBangla.

The drilling equipment was transported to Shahbazpur and installed under difficult conditions – the excessively heavy cargo had to be transported along the river on barges, and reinforcement work had to be carried out on the shoreline at the points of loading and unloading.

In April 2012, Gazprom International concluded two drilling contracts with BAPEX and BGFCL/SGFL to design and construct ten production wells in Bangladesh. Work began in the first quarter of 2013.

The wells are being constructed in six fields: Titas (four wells), Rashidpur, Semutang, Begumganj, Shrikail (one well in each) and Shahbazpur (two wells). Most of the wells are directional inclined wells; their depth ranges from 2,900 to 4,050 metres down the wellbore. Six wells have already been built: Shrikail-3, Titas-20, Titas-21, Titas-22, Begumganj-3 and Semutang-6. The drilling of Titas-19 is near completion.