bpTT
looks beyond oil
By
Roxanne Stapleton
Trinidad
Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com
07 02 06
BPTT
LLC'S chairman and CEO, Robert Riley last week highlighted
that technological advancements in seismic acquisition,
seismic processing, drilling and completions have
allowed his company to take steps to find, develop
and produce reserves at a much greater pace than
before.
"A
new offshore seismic shoot lasting more than three
months long has just been completed in the Columbus
Basin.
"We
expect to develop four new fields over the next
five years, accurately positioning the wells with
the newly acquired seismic.
"This
will help to recover the maximum amount of proven
reserves and to recover some of the probable reserves
thereby maintaining out high rates of gas production
to the domestic and LNG markets," Riley said.
"Through
our outstanding exploration success to date and
the application of state of the art technology,
we have reasonable certainty at bpTT that we have
enough resources and reserves to underpin our existing
gas contracts, some of which extend to as far as
the year 2024.
"In
bpTT's case we already have more than 13 trillion
cubic feet of proven reserves which is approximately
two-thirds of the total resource base."
Riley
noted that there are constant discussions with respect
to finding the right competitive pricing for Trinidad
and Tobago's oil and gas between industry players
and the Government.
Speaking
at the AmCham's breakfast conference at Movie Towne
Invaders Bay, Riley admitted that "there's
a general recognition that oil and gas prices have
moved".
Several
industry analysts have been clamouring for a review
of domestic gas prices, which they stress are too
conservatively priced in the Trinidad market, when
compared to what gas fetches at the Henry Hub.
Henry
Hub last week averaged US$6.55 MMBtu whereas several
domestic gas contracts (privately negotiated), fetch
a value averaging between US$1.60 MMBtu and US$3.00
MMBtu, and in most cases are on the lower scale
end, sources told Express Business.
Turning
to bpTT's latest exploits, Riley zeroed in on the
Ibis Deep well which is currently being drilled
in the South East Coast Consortium block in the
Columbus Basin, on behalf of bpTT and its partners
in the project EOG Resources Trinidad, Petrotrin
and NGC.
The
Ibis Deep has a price tag of US$75 million and will
be the deepest vertical well ever drilled in Trinidad
and Tobago when it reaches its target depth - it
is targeting a Pliocene play at 20,500 feet, including
250 feet of water.
Of
its Cannonball field, Riley said it is the largest
individual producer of gas and its three wells are
delivering "the amazing volume" of 740
million cubic feet of gas per day.
"This
kind of rate is unheard of in any other part of
the BP Group but perhaps gives you an insight into
why gas has so decisively eclipsed oil in our Trinidad
and Tobago portfolio," Riley said.
Turning
to local content policy, he said: "It is our
emergence as a gas company that has provided the
foundation for our ground-breaking foray into design
engineering and fabrication of offshore platforms
in Trinidad and Tobago.
"Cannonball
was the pioneering effort, which paved the way for
the two other bpTT platforms - Mango and Cashima
now under construction at the La Brea fabrication
yard in South Trinidad and also the just-completed
Oilbird platform for our colleagues in energy at
EOG Resources."
bpTT's
gas production has jumped upwards of 2.3 billion
cubic feet per day, which is more than three times
the level it stood at in 1996.
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Wednesday, June 28th 2006
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©2006 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
