Deep
water blocks attract only one bid
By Curtis Williams
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 17 06
Eleven
of the 12 companies which paid for 2-D seismic to
be shot over deep water blocks have rejected the
government’s latest bid round.
All
of the world’s major oil and gas companies
operating in T&T declined the opportunity to
offer bids for the eight blocks in the Trinidad
Deep Atlantic. The only bidder was Statoil.
Statoil
put in the lone bid for TDAA Block 5 and will know
within the next three months whether its bid has
been accepted.
The
Ministry of Energy has for some time advertised
the Atlantic Deep as the next frontier and the place
where huge billion barrel fields may be found.
Director
of Resource Management Helena Innis King told the
Guardian that the rejection of the bid round does
not mean that the companies are convinced there
is no oil in the deep waters off Trinidad’s
Atlantic Cost.
She
said, ‘I am not disappointed. This is a learning
process and five wells in a 6000 square mile area
does not mean an area has been well explored. To
the contrary.”
It
is estimated that a well in the deep would cost
at least TT $630 million.
Innis-King
said it appeared that the majors were “shying
away at this time from taking real risks.”
Innis
King said the Ministry will look at the blocks again
and eventually put them out for bids.
Statoil’s
Manager (Commercial Negotiations) Gareth Burns said
his company’s decision to bid was in part
informed by a recent discovery made in Block 4 on
the Venezuelan side of the border.
The
Trinidad Atlantic Deep bid round took more than
a year before it was eventually closed.
The
Trinidad Guardian
Saturday 16th December, 2006
Copyright
©2006 The Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
