Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration & Production Commpany Limited (BAPEX) is an Exploration and Production Company, fully owned by the Government of Bangladesh having its Head Office in Dhaka. It is operating as a Company under Bangladesh Oil, Gas & Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) of the Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources. BAPEX, before emerging as a Company in June, 1989, was an integral part
of Petrobangla as Exploration Directorate. Consequently BAPEX inherited vast experience from Oil & Gas Development Corporation of Pakistan (1962-1971) and Petrobangla (1972-1989). In order to accelerate oil and gas exploration activities, BAPEX emerged as an oil and gas exploration company in July 1989 as per government decision. Initially, the operational expenditure of BAPEX was met from the margin imposed on the gas sale proceeds of the gas distribution companies of Petrobangla. Subsequently, on 29th February 2000 BAPEX was transformed into an exploration and production company with a view to making it self-reliant. As a result of the growth of its operational activities, at present, besides exploration and drilling activities in its own blocks, BAPEX is producing and supplying gas to the national grid from its two gas fields Saldanadi and Fenchuganj. Shahbazpur gas field has been brought under partial commission this year to supply gas to a rental power plant. To match the increasing activities of BAPEX, initiatives have been taken to develop its human resources and enrich it with state-of-the-art technology and equipment. To this end recruitment and training of personnel have been going on. All new officers have been provided with basic foundation training, HSE briefing and professional attachments. The current personnel strength of BAPEX stands at 392 officer and 471 staff. In parallel new equipment and machineries are being procured to upgrade the technical capabilities of BAPEX. The decision to utilize Bapex's expertise to drill new development wells and work over of old wells belonging to Petrobangla production companies BGFCL and SGFL in order to meet the increasing gas demand of the country proved to be extremely fruitful. It enabled the production companies to carry on the development activities when international rig availability has become very expensive and tough. In the last few years BAPEX has successfully completed several workover and production well of BGFCL & Sylhet Gas field. Currently, Bapex is capable to conduct 2D or 3D seismic survey on any terrain. Bapex geoscientists achieved their expertise to process/interpret seismic data.Under the finance of ADB, BAPEX is carrying out 1250 square kilometer 3D seismic survey over five gas fields of BGFCL (Titas, Bakhrabad) and SGFL (Sylhet, Kailashtilla & Rashidpur) in collaboration with BGM and SGFL. Success of work-over operation on Bangora-3, have increased the confidence level to become partner of IOC in future. The new rig is capable of drilling 7000m and equiped with most modern drilling equipment. Besides, drilling equipment and crew, Bapex also extended geological consultancy for prospective zone selection and determined perforation depth.
