New
oil and gas hunt off San Fernando
By Ariti Jankie
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 07 07
Petro-Canada
expects to spend US $450,000 a day for six months
to drill six wells in the Gulf of Paria with the
hope of finding natural gas and crude oil.
At
its first public consultation, on the proposed drilling
programme, held recently at the South Trinidad Chamber
of Industry and Commerce headquarters, Cross Crossing,
San Fernando the company's manager Blair Wiley said
a seismic survey of the area was completed earlier
this year.
He
said there was a 25 per cent chance of finding natural
gas and crude oil.
"The
oil would have to be sent to Petrotrin for refining,"
Wiley said.
He
said drilling will begin between July and December
next year and that a supply base would be set up
in La Brea.
Two
supply boats would provide consumables including
diesel, drill pipe, food, drinking water and other
materials, Wiley said.
He
said 90 employees would be working and living on
the rig, 15 miles out at sea off San Fernando. Up
to 75 per cent of the workers employed would be
Trinidadians, Wiley added.
He
said the company, an oil and gas firm from Alberta,
Canada, had signed a production sharing contract
with the Government to explore blocks 1A and 1B
in the Gulf of Paria. He noted that the rig would
be drilled one after the other for 30-45 days at
a time and at any given time there would be only
one rig in the water.
Wiley
said Petro-Canada would negotiate a gas supply contract
to start the drilling exercises at sea.
But
not everyone was happy with the project.
Salim
Gool, president of the San Fernando Fishing Cooperative
told the consultation that during the seismic survey
fishermen from the area were unable to earn a livelihood.
He said the noise from equipment used in the survey
drove the fish away and fishing boats returned to
shore without any catch on most days.
Gool
explained that compensation was promised to the
fishermen but so far none of the San Fernando fishermen
had received payments.
Petro-Canada
communications advisor Rosemary Drummond, said that
more than 60 fishermen were paid compensation and
that applications for compensation have not been
received from San Fernando fishermen.
Neil
Khan, secretary of the Cooperative said fishermen
were unable to fill out the form for compensation.
He argued that the liaison officer appointed by
Petro-Canada had not been helping in providing the
necessary information to the fishermen.
The
fishermen called for officials of the Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries Division to attend further
consultations on obtaining a Certificate of Environmental
Clearance from the Environmental Management Authority
as a prerequisite to drilling in the Gulf. They
said that the fishing industry had suffered a serious
setback with government's oil exploration projects
at sea.
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday, December 20th 2006
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