Offshore Hydrocarbon most probably heard two

Probable Prospects of very common sentence from the

mango people as well as through
Bengal Basin: Based On the media that,
Neighbors Basins 1. Bangladesh is floating on Gas
Studies 2. Bangladesh is running out of Gas
It is not true that Bangladesh is floating on
Saiful Islam Apu
nd

ahead. In fact in my early academic

48th Batch,
Department of Geology very often-through television, through
University of Dhaka newspaper even through my teachers.

Rather we will discuss something interesting

which might be related with issues.
 Bangladesh is running out
of gas? Most probably the
answer is no.

The Bengal Basin is one of the most

extensive sediment reservoirs in the world
and constitutes the lower floodplain and
delta plain deposits of India and
Bangladesh, at the mouth of the Ganga
Brahmaputra Meghna River systems. It is
bordered by the Himalayan Ranges and the
Shillong Massif to the N, the Indian Shield
to the W & the Arakan Chin fold System
of the Indo-Burman Ranges to the E.
Towards S the basin is open to Bay of
Bengal. And it is our concerning part now.
Surrounding the offshore parts of Bengal
basin or more preciously could be said,
Bay of Bengal is surrounded by three other
basins i.e. KG Basin, Mahanadi Basin &
Rakhain offshore Basin. The Krishna
Godavari Basin is a proven petroliferous
induced tectonics in the shelf and slope parts
basin of continental margin located on the
of the basin creating highly prospective
east coast of India. The maximum
exploration locales. Some of the recent very
thickness of the sediments in Krishna
significant discoveries in these settings had
Godavari basin is around 5000 m. The
opened new hydrocarbon opportunities in the
basin contains about 5 km thick sediments
Krishna-Godavari basin and necessitated re-
with several cycles of deposition, ranging
estimation of its hydrocarbon resource
in age from Late Carboniferous to
potential. In onshore, so far 141 prospects
Pleistocene. Increased gradients for the
have been probed by 375 exploratory wells by
river systems and increased sediment load
ONGC, out of which 11 oil & gas pools and
coupled with significant sea level falls
31 gas pools have been discovered and most of
during Neogene had triggered sediment
 traps and the above observations clearly
indicate the hydrocarbon potential of the
basin. Significant hydrocarbon shows have
been encountered in most of the
exploratory wells drilled in the Mahanadi
Offshore basin. Gas recovered during
Formation Interval Testing (FIT) of
Miocene sandstones and Eocene
-2 contained
significant proportions of higher
hydrocarbons. To date, four wells in
KG Basin onshore part (MNO-1 to 4) and seven
wells in Mahanadi shallow offshore
them are on production. In offshore, So far (MND-1 to 7) have been drilled, some of
more than 84 prospects have been probed which indicated significant hydrocarbon
by 182 exploratory wells. Hydrocarbon shows during drilling. Deep water part of
accumulations have been proved in 33 of the basin holds huge significant additional
these prospects (11 oil & gas and 22 gas hydrocarbon potential.
prospects). The Mio-Pliocene sequence in
offshore part is promising. As many as
fourteen commercial finds have come from
this sequence.
The Mahanadi Basin, a product of rifting
and break up of Gondwana Land, situated
on the East Coast of India is a basin with
significant unexplored hydrocarbon
potential. Like its immediate neighboring,
Krishna-Godavari Basin, Mahanadi Basin
also has a geological extension into
offshore. The basin covers a total area of
Mahanadi Basin
55,000 Sq. Km. out of which about 14,000
Sq. Km. lies in the shallow offshore area. The Rakhine Basin is in the eastern fringe
The basin first came into being Jurassic of the Bay of Bengal and western coastal
Period as a result of rifting & breaking up province of Myanmar. The offshore
of the Gondwanaland. The upper age limit Rakhine Region covers an area of 170 000
of the oceanic basement may be Early km2. The basin contains about 5 km thick
Cretaceous. Presence of organic matter has sediments with several cycles of
been reported in different sequences in deposition, ranging in age from Late
some of the onshore and offshore wells. Carboniferous to Pliocene. The exploration
Temperature gradient in onshore and history in the region falls into three main
offshore wells is found to be >2.5 0 C/100 periods. Between 1975 and 1976 seven
m. Presence of structural and stratigraphic wells were drilled in the shallow coastal
blocks (Table 9.2). All had total depths in
the Middle Upper Miocene, except for
Rubis-1 which had a TD in the
Pliocene. Exploration drilling did not
restart until 2003 and then continued until
2009, during which time 29 wells were
drilled between 2012 and 2014 a further
four wells were drilled. Forty-one
exploration and appraisal wells have been
drilled to date (2014), including five
sidetracks, most of them in the northern
Rakhine Basin A very large part of the
offshore has yet to be explored. Twenty- Bangladesh is running out of gas? Most
one of these wells were dry, and six had
gas shows (Shwe-1, Shwe Phyu-4b, Jade- extract the prospects from offshore properly
1, A2/A3, A3/G-1 and A7-1). The in near future, there are ahead North western
sidetrack of the Pyi Thar well (A6-1st) part of BD where several stratigraphic trap
encountered sub commercial gas in the could be encountered in. That is another
Pliocene while the remaining wells were story.
gas discoveries in Lower Pliocene deep-
water sandstone: References:
These three hydrocarbon prospecting basin
indicates a very promising prospects in 1. Andrew Racey, Michael F. Ridd, 2015.
Bay of Bengal as they all resides "Petroleum geology of the Rakhine
geologically very near conditional blocks. region, Myanmar", Petroleum Geology
An extensive explorational work might of Myanmar, Racey, M. F. Ridd
extend the possibility of hydrocarbon 2. Fuloria, R.C. & Pandey, Ratindra &
prospects of Bangladesh. Previously two Bharali, B.R. & Mishra, J.K.. (1992).
prospects has been encountered but they Stratigraphy, structure and tectonics of
were not in deep sea block. Deep sea Mahanadi offshore basin. Geological
blocks are seeming more promising Survey of India Special Publication. 29.
because of the geological condition & 255-265.
surrounding prospecting. Especially if we 3. Kumar, S.P.. (1983). Geology and
see the maritime boundary of Bangladesh hydrocarbon prospects of Krishna-
Godavari and Cauvery Basin.
clearly. The maritime boundary that went Petroliferous basins of India. 6. 57-65.
belong to Myanmar, is the residence of 4. N. Rao, G. (2001). Sedimentation,
rakhine offshore basin which is full of Stratigraphy, and Petroleum Potential of
hydrocarbon prospects. Krishna-Godavari Basin, East Coast of
So, if we encountered hydrocarbon India. AAPG Bulletin. 85.
prospects in Bay of Bengal, will we say