The country's existing natural gas reserves are sufficient to meet the country's energy demand for up to 12 years, Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud told parliament on Sunday.
The minister made the disclosure while responding to a question from Bogura-4 constituency lawmaker Md. Mosharraf Hossain during a session of the National Parliament chaired by Deputy Speaker Kayser Kamal on April 19.
Mahmud said the country's total recoverable gas reserves stand at 29.74 trillion cubic feet. Of that, 22.11 trillion cubic feet had been extracted by December 2025, leaving a remaining reserve of 7.63 trillion cubic feet as of January 1, 2026.
The minister noted that if no new gas fields are discovered and supply continues at the current rate of approximately 1,700 million cubic feet per day, the remaining reserves would sustain the national gas supply for roughly 12 years.
On exploration efforts, Mahmud said Petrobangla has a master plan to drill a total of 50 wells and conduct workover operations on 100 others. Of these, 26 wells have already been drilled or worked over, with the remaining projects at various stages of progress.
Regarding seismic surveys, the minister said state-owned BAPEX has completed the acquisition of 3,600 kilometres of 2D seismic data in Blocks 7 and 9, with data processing currently underway.
Meanwhile, preparations are in progress to launch 3D seismic data acquisition across 1,450 square kilometres covering the Habiganj, Bakhrabad, and Meghna areas through BGFCL. Additional large-scale 3D seismic surveys are also being planned across various parts of the country through BAPEX and SGFL.
