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| A snubbing unit, a kind of rig will be brought from the US to temporarily seal off the third well of Titas, after the 38-year old well of the country's biggest gas provider gas field, went totally out of control with an uncontrolled release of gas at the rate of 15 to 18 million cubic feet a day. The decision was taken in a meeting between the Titas’s operator Bangladesh Gas Field Company Ltd (BGFCL), a company of state-owned oil and gas corporation, Petrobangla and Bob Grace of US company GSM, who flew in here and visited the gas field in Brahmanbaria. Rough estimate shows that it may cost BGFCL US $3-$4 million to bring the unit from the US by chartered plane and to seal off the well in around two months if everything goes smoothly. The well will have to be sealed to stop uncontrolled emission of gas which poses the risk of a blow-out, and also to determine whether gas leakage through huge cracks in the field has been occurring because of this troubled well. The snubbing unit is an equipment used in ‘under-balanced drilling’, which prevents blow-out while changing the drill bit and drill pipe, and provides a press to drill in the pipe to overcome down-hole high pressure. “The snubbing unit is a new thing for us, as it has never been used in the country. Basically it will drill pipes at high pressure into the tubing of the leaking gas well, which now has an almost uncontrollably high gas pressure,” said an official of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX), which has been assigned to deal with the matter earlier. When the pipes. . .several pipes will be attached together to create a long pipe gradually. . . reach the bottom of the well, up to 3,000 meters, mud will be pumped in through the pipes to seal the well, he explained. Bob also explained the details of the method and presented a complete proposal at a meeting in the Energy and Mineral Resources Division with Secretary AMM Nasir Uddin in the chair. “Around one and a half month will be needed to locate a unit and to bring it to Bangladesh in a chartered plane. Then, if everything goes well, it will need one week to seal the well. In that case the expert’s rough estimate shows the total cost will be around $3-4 million,” said an official present at the meeting. “The cost may increase if some complications arise in the well and if it takes more time to seal it, as the unit is likely to be rented on a daily basis and unit’s crew will also be paid in the same manner.” Nasir requested Bob, who left Bangladesh after the meeting, to bring in the unit and start the sealing work as early as possible, and to rent a unit at low cost from Texas. The well is now somewhat under control and authorities are diverting 30 million cubic feet of gas to the national grid and burning 5 million cubic feet of gas per day to reduce the pressure. The authorities first noticed the large cracks in the field and leaks in late December 2006, although many local people said the cracks and bubbling out of gas have been happening for many years. d. |
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