The discovery was made at Bangora in Block 9, near Comilla, 97 km from the Bangladesh capital.

In May, the company discovered another gas bearing reservoir in Lalmai in the same block.

In an official statement, Tullow Oil said it had discovered a number of gas bearing reservoirs at a site in Bangora with a "better than expected" aggregate flow rate in excess of 120 million cubic feet a day.

"The Bangora-1 well was drilled to a depth of 3,636m and encountered a number of gas bearing reservoirs between 2,580m and 3,285m. Having completed the well, the three lowermost zones were production tested, recording an aggregate flow rate in excess of 120 mmscfd."

The well will be suspended as a future production well, said the company.

Following the discovery, Tullow's chief executive Aidan Heavey said: "With the earlier discovery at Lalmai, we have now had gas discoveries at each end of a 40-km anti-clinal structure."

On Dec 15, Tullow Bangladesh Ltd (TBL), a subsidiary of the British company, which is the operator of oil and gas exploration in Block-9, began drilling its first well in the prospective area that covers Comilla, Chandpur, part of Brahmanbaria and Dhaka.

Tullow is 30 percent owner of Block-9 while state-run BAPEX owns 10 percent. US giant ChevronTexaco owned the remaining 60 percent that was sold to a smaller Canadian company named Niko Resources Limited in October last year.

--Indo-Asian News Service