US energy company Unocal Corp will invest $230 million to develop a gas field in north-eastern Bangladesh that will help ease a domestic shortfall, senior officials said on Monday. Unocal signed the deal with state-run Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) to develop the Bibiana gas field, which has proven gas reserves of more than 2.4 trillion cubic feet, Petrobangla Chairman S.R. Osmani said.
"Under the plan they will also set up a processing plant for 600 million cubic feet of gas per day and will construct a 40 km pipeline to connect with the national grid."
The company would produce up to 300 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas per day from October 2006, and this would be increased by 100 mcf annually until 2008, Osmani said.
The production period is 25 years.
Unocal has already drilled two wells in the field, nearly 300 kilometres (180 miles) north-east of the capital Dhaka, and a further 13 wells would be drilled under the development plan.