Wildcat Well exploratory well drilled for hydrocarbon (oil and gas) on a geological feature not yet proven to be productive, or in an unproven territory, or to a zone that has never produced or is not known to be productive in the general area.

In Bangladesh first onshore wildcat well was drilled at Sitakunda anticline, Chittagong district in the year 1914. The well was drilled to a depth of 762 m. The first offshore wildcat well was drilled in the shelf region of the bay of bengal in 1974-75. This exploration was undertaken by six foreign oil companies who engaged themselves in the bay under production sharing contract with Bangladesh government. So far 53 onshore and 11 offshore wildcat wells have been drilled. These wells are drilled by national companies including OGDC, Taila Shandani, petrobangla, BAPEX, etc. Foreign companies including Shell, BODC, Union Oil, Ina Napthalin, Occidental, Mobil, Cairn Energy, UNOCAL, etc have also drilled wildcat wells in Bangladesh under production sharing contract. Bangladesh have got one of the highest success ratios in the world in discovering oil and gas from wildcat drillings. The success ratio in Bangladesh is 1 in 3.04 compared to the world ratio of 1 in 10. [Kazi Matin Uddin Ahmed]