Petrobangla's Search for CBM in Jamalganj Coalfield Continues Without Much Success

State owned Petrobangla has not had much success in its search for coal bed methane in the Jamalganj coalfield, the largest coalfield in Bangladesh.

“After drilling two wells, we have come to realise that the coalfield might not have any extractable coalbed methane gas,” a Petrobangla general manager told the Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday.

Currently the company is drilling again to be certain about the nonexistence of the gas. Exploration work began in January this year for which the feasibility study was conducted by Indian consulting firm Mining Associates Pvt Ltd.

“We had planned to drill three wells there.  The drilling work of two wells have already been completed and another is going on. We have found some traces of CBM but the amount is not commercially extractable,” Mortuza Ahmad Faruque, the project monitoring consultant of the Jamalganj coalfield project told the Dhaka Tribune.

State owned Petrobangla and Mining Associates Private Ltd (MAPL) signed an agreement in June last year to work together to assess CBM exploration potential in Bangladesh.