T&T to compete for deepwater investments as gas resources dwindle

Jun 01, 2022 News

A section of the audience at Tuesday morning’s opening session for the T&T Energy Conference.

By Kiana Wilburg and Davina Bagot in T&T

Kaieteur News – Given the uncertainty surrounding the end game for the oil and gas industry in light of the energy transition and challenges resulting from his country’s dwindling gas supply stock, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Dr. Keith Rowley believes it is now more crucial than ever for T&T to expeditiously explore, develop and monetise its remaining oil and gas resources.
During his featured address at Tuesday’s opening of the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference being held at the Hyatt Hotel from May 31 to June 2, 2022, he shared that the country’s latest gas reserve audit established that at the year-end 2020, technically recoverable resources amounted to 23.2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) and prospective resources at 55.2 tcf. As for the latest oil audit, it established 455.3M barrels and prospective resources at 3.2B, 90 percent of which is in its deepwater province.
“We therefore have resources to exploit in a market that still exists and we propose to continue doing so,” the Prime Minister stated.
Accordingly, Dr. Rowley said T&T has embarked on a series of bid rounds, with a deepwater bid round in December last year, the closing ceremony of which will be held on Thursday, June 2, 2022.
The politician, who holds a doctorate in geology, specialising in geochemistry, was keen to note that T&T is of course not alone in the pursuit of deepwater exploration. He noted that several countries are actively promoting bid rounds at this time. “We know we are competing for exploration capital,” the Prime Minister stated while noting that T&T was able to close seven licensing rounds by the end of the first quarter. Another eight licensing rounds that are open are expected to be closed by the end of 2022.
Regionally, he noted that Suriname and Brazil closed successful bid rounds while upcoming 2022 bid rounds comprise Guyana’s deepwater blocks, Brazil’s subsalt blocks, and Ecuador’s oil blocks, the Prime Minister stated.
He added, “Our series of bid rounds continues on the onshore and in September 2021, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries invited nominations for onshore acreage for competitive bidding. Eleven blocks were nominated and based on responses, the ministry plans to launch the onshore competitive bid round in this quarter. The offshore shallow water bid round will be next. In total, there are 25 open shallow water blocks for consideration. A date for the launch has not been determined but that will be released soon.”
Kaieteur News understands that the deepwater bid round consists of 17 deep-water blocks located off the east and north coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
BHP, an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and petroleum company, and its partners have had significant exploration success in the deep-water blocks allocated in the two previous deep-water bid rounds, with significant gas resources being discovered in the north-eastern sector in the waters between Tobago and the maritime boundary with Barbados. This newspaper understands that BHP and their partners have been analysing potential commercial development options for these multi-trillion cubic feet resources, after drilling two successful appraisal wells late last year. BHP has named this development Calypso.
T&T regulators have said they are uncertain how the upcoming merger of BHP’s Petroleum Division with fellow Australian upstream producer, Woodside, will impact the Calypso project. The deal is set to close during the T&T Energy Conference, which is sponsored by BHP, as well as their two partners in the deep-water, Shell and BP.
T&T is one of the oldest hydrocarbon provinces in the world, with well over a century of commercial oil production. The availability of significant under-utilised gas processing capacity and significant unmet demand in the petrochemical sector in-country, as well as a highly developed services industry and large cadre of experienced professionals continue to make it an attractive investment destination in the upstream oil and gas industry.

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