DHAKA, Dec 31 (Reuters) - An exploration well drilled by British oil-and-gas firm Cairn Energy Plc in an offshore field in Bangladesh has failed to discover commercially viable gas, a senior government official said on Monday.
The firm started drilling the well in October in the Magnama structure in the Bay of Bengal some 60 kilometres (38 miles) south of Chittagong port as part of a $117 million project, the energy official said.
“Just today we received the disappointing news from Cairn officials,” Jalal Ahmed, chairman of the state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas, and Mineral Corporation, or Petrobangla, said.
The firm will now move its drilling rig to the Hatiya structure, Jalal said.
Cairn declined to comment.
The firm operates Bangladesh’s only offshore gas field at Sangu in the Bay of Bengal, producing up to 80 million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd).
Cairn has been in Bangladesh for more than 10 years and, along with its joint venture partner, U.S. firm Halliburton Co., has invested nearly $790 million, officials said.
Bangladesh’s proven and recoverable gas reserves of 13.54 tcf are expected to be exhausted by 2011, officials said.
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(Reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir; Editing by Neil Fullick) ((anis.ahmed.reuters.com@reuters.net; +880-2-8332062 ; Reuters Messaging: anis.ahmed.reuters.com@reuters.net))