Is Bangladesh running out of gas resources?

Bangladesh had its first gas field discovery in Sylhet in 1955. Since then, a total of 27 commercial gas fields have been found in the country with a cumulative original recoverable gas reserve of 28 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), according to Petrobangla official estimates. Commercial production of gas began in 1960 and about 18 Tcf of gas has been produced and consumed by now, leaving a remaining gas reserve of 10 Tcf. Petrobangla estimates a further 1 Tcf of gas in the possible reserve category. On that count, a total of 11 Tcf of gas is reasonably assumed to be in hand for consumption.

On the production side, Bangladesh had seen a steady rise in the local daily gas production rate until mid-2016, when the production level peaked at about 2,750 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd). But since then, the production rate started to decline slowly and steadily, and came down to the level of 2,280 mmcfd by the beginning of May 2021. The chance that local production will rise again is remote to nil in the near future, unless new gas fields are discovered to supplement the known reserves. Gas production is projected to steadily decline in the years to come, and eventually the present reserves will be exhausted at some point. A commonly asked question, therefore, is when the present reserve will run out.