Huge
oil and gas reserves rank region third in the
world
PORT SPAIN
Petroleumworldtt.com
02 24 08
LAST November Brazil's state-owned oil giant,
Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras), announced a major
oil find. Having drilled offshore Rio de Janeiro
to a depth of 3,000 metres, the company struck
gold-an estimated eight billion barrels of oil.
That find puts the South American giant among the
top ten countries in the world in so far as oil
reserves go. What does a major oil find thousands
of miles away from Trinidad and Tobago have to
do with this country? Does it mean anything in
the wake of the Scott Ryder report, released around
the same time last year, which suggested this country
had gas reserves that would last us only for another
decade or so?
In the year 2000, a United States Geological Survey
assessed 130 selected petroleum 'provinces' of
the world, 23 of which were in South America, Central
America and the Caribbean area. Among the geological
formations where the USGS suggested there could
be substantial deposits of oil and gas were the
Santos and Campos Basins, off the Atlantic coast
of South America. It was in the Santos Basin that
Petrobras, respected worldwide for its deep-sea
drilling expertise, made the find of recoverable
light crude. That came seven years after the USGS
report was released.
What
is striking and of great interest to Trinidad
and Tobago is the same survey ranks the region
(from the east coast of South America to the Caribbean
in the north) as potentially having the third largest
volume of undiscovered oil and gas, behind only
the Middle-East and countries of the former Soviet
Union. The report stated: "Specifically, the
USGS estimates mean totals of 105 billion barrels
of oil and 487 trillion cubic feet of gas of undiscovered
resource in the region."
Close
to Trinidad and Tobago, the report referred to
the Tobago Trough and The East Venezuela Basin, "estimated
to contain 23 percent of all undiscovered non-associated
gas". "More than half of this estimated
total lies offshore Trinidad in the Columbus Basin
and the Orinoco offshore," the report added. "The
potential for giant fields is mainly offshore in
water depths to 3,600 meters. In fact, Central
America, South America and the Caribbean are poised
to be hydrocarbon success stories."
Mind boggling? Maybe. Recently, Petro-Canada,
drilling offshore Charlotteville (in the Tobago
Trough), struck gas, the quantum yet to be determined.
Indeed, a closer look at the USGS geological map
shows significant potential, mainly for gas, off
Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago,
Grenada and Barbados. While recent finds off Trinidad's
east coast have not yielded significant gas, the
USGS report suggests the best is yet to come-albeit
at a high cost. The cost factor comes about because
of the depths at which such fields are believed
to exist. But, according to experts in the energy
field, almost all future oil and gas finds will
be costly exercises, which, in turn, will mean
higher prices for the two prized commodities.
Whether it was the USGS report or mere geopolitics
playing out, it's interesting that squabbles over
territorial land and seabed claims resurfaced recently
after years of lying dormant. Last November, to
use one example, Guyana and Suriname had the International
Tribunal on the Law of the Sea rule on their maritime
boundary dispute over 61,500 square miles of offshore
territory. Guyana was awarded some 33,000 square
kilometres and Suriname 17,871. Already Suriname
has granted exploration licences in three blocks.
In Guyana, CGX Energy, a small Canadian company,
is expected to benefit from drilling rights off
the Guyana coast. In Venezuela, President Hugo
Chavez has added reserves in the vast Orinoco tar
belt to that country's already huge oil reserves.
Energy Online reported that Barbados exercised
its rights to its Exclusive Economic Zone and is
in the process of inviting bids and issuing licences
for exploration and drilling in 24 offshore blocks.
The Owen Arthur government, ousted in elections
last month, insisted on a 25 per cent stake in
all such licences granted. David Thompson's new
DLP government is hardly likely to change that
position.
The
intensification of oil and gas exploration in
the Caricom region, signals that sometime in
the future, countries like Guyana and Suriname
could challenge Trinidad and Tobago's virtual hegemony
on energy production. According to the USGS report, "Not
surprisingly, the greatest potential for giant
oil and gas fields lies in the offshore basins
along the Atlantic margin of eastern South America,
from the Santos Basin in the south to the Guyana-Suriname
Basin in the north."
It
added, though: "In addition, the basins
of northern South America around Trinidad and Barbados
as well as Venezuela are estimated to contain significant
undiscovered natural gas resources, as are some
of the Andean-related basins. For undiscovered
non-associated gas, an estimated 61 percent of
the resource is in the total petroleum systems
of seven assessed basins - six of which are predominately
offshore: Foz do Amazonas, Espirito Santo, Santos,
Pelotas, Santa Cruz-Tarija, the Tobago Trough and
East Venezuela, which includes the Columbus Basin
offshore Trinidad."
Maybe this is why Prime Minister Patrick Manning
has all but dismissed the Ryder Scott report that
spoke of a ten-year reserve of natural gas at current
usage (close to four billion cubic feet per day).
The Government is banking on the results of intense
drilling activities offshore Trinidad-and Tobago.
Indeed, in Tobago, when the first flares from Petro-Canada's
gas discovery were spotted, there was jubilation.
Some well-placed people on the island are even
talking of setting up an LNG plant in Tobago.
Energy experts, though, are not overly excited.
Those who spoke with Business Express have long
maintained that there are substantial gas reserves
offshore this country waiting to be discovered.
But they insist that government's over-indulgence
in LNG and downstream gas plants-like steel mills,
aluminium smelters and similar heavy industries-is
not in the best interests of the country's future.
It matters not, they say, whether the gas finds
are huge or small. Time for diversifying the economy
to elevate living standards and guarantee future
generations a rich, sustainable legacy, is running
out.
(to be continued)
Story
by Raffique Shah from
Trinidad Express
Trinidad
Express
Wednesday, February 20th 2008
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