More oil, gas revenue for Govt. in 2010
Last year it was gloom and doom as oil and gas prices drop precipitously. Things are just the opposite in 2010.
There is certainly more cause for optimism regarding Government’s revenue take from oil and gas in 2010.
Last year, it was doom and gloom as gas prices had plummeted to below US $3 and oil to around US $36: things are just the opposite this year as oil and gas prices way exceed budget expectations with oil being around $79 (the current budget is based on $55) while gas as of today is US $4.7, a whopping two dollars more than the budget figure!
More good news as a senior official of BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT) revealed last Wednesday that the drilling of two appraisal natural gas wells had good results, and that exploration to increase reserves will continue this year.
BPTT vice president for development Curtis Mohammed told a recent energy conference that wells in the Serrette and Savonette offshore fields were drilled last year: “The Serrette well encountered gas pay in five reservoirs and results of the Savonette well drilled late in 2009 are being evaluated,” he said.
There was also an “increase in resources” in the other productive gas fields: The Kapok, Cannonball and Mango gas fields are reportedly showing good results from surveillance and depletion planning efforts. “As a result, we reported a reserve replacement ratio of close to 100 percent for the Trinidad business,” Mohammed said.
BPTT operates 12 offshore platforms and two onshore processing facilities, sells 40 percent of its gas to the state-owned National Gas Company and 60 percent to the Atlantic LNG company.
Another TT energy sector company, BHP Billiton Trinidad and Tobago, which has experienced a rapid decline in its oil production, has announced that it will move into gas production in the first quarter of 2011.
“Our oil continues to approach a natural decline in the fields. It will be helped by our ability to produce gas and sell it to the market. We do see our projects steering more toward gas than oil in the future,” Jon Krome, the company’s vice president for operations in Trinidad, said last week.
BHP’s oil production from its Greater Angostura field dropped sharply from 50,542 barrels per day (bpd) four years ago to 14,870 bpd last August.
But the company has since announced that it will have the capacity to produce close to 300 million cubic feet of gas per day to sell to National Gas Company (NGC) and to supply downstream petrochemical companies.
Over a year ago, BHP Billiton TT signed a contract with NGC to supply gas from a new gas export platform from next year.
The entry of new investors in TT’s energy sector is also a promising sign of recovery: Petro Andina Ltd, a Latin-American company is the newest player in the local energy industry.
The company plans to begin a drilling programme in the near future, Country Manager Brian Lynam announced: “We have a number of leads and prospects on the (exploration blocks) that we have (and) we are very excited about it. “We picked two countries that we think are in an excellent position to make investments. “I think it’s an opportunity for us to invest and stay here,” Lynam said.
Petro Andina has three onshore blocks in Trinidad and four onshore blocks in Colombia, but the company is interested in seeking out oil over natural gas in Trinidad. The company sees Trinidad and Tobago as an important extension of the major petroleum opportunities that exist in neighboring Venezuela.