Petrotrin
to boost drilling
PORT SPAIN
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 02 08
Petrotrin,
the State-owned company that owns the nation's
only oil refinery, is seeking to increase
its exploration activities over the next two years
as
two major upstream companies are complaining that there continues to be a lack
of fiscal incentives for deep water exploration.
"We plan to continue with our exploration
and development drilling. There are discussions
already taking place concerning partnering with
others to get the sort of technology required to
make those sort of investments," Petrotrin
production operations general manager Caesar Mitchell
said yesterday.
He did so while delivering a presentation on Petrotrin's
exploration and production activity during the
Trinidad and Tobago Petroleum Conference 2008,
at the Hilton Trinidad Hotel and Conference Centre,
St Ann's yesterday.
BHP
Billiton president Vincent Pereira said yesterday,
however, that the new fiscal regime had prohibited
the company's participation in the last deep water
exploration bid round "since the expected
economics were insufficient to justify a bid."
"The key commercial issue in our view is
that the very high tax regime, combined with the
significant up-front investment required for a
deepwater development, cannot sustain the very
slow payback over time that occurs with such a
tax regime," Pereira said.
"Consideration should be given for the Production
Sharing Contract (PSC) providing compensation for
this cost environment," he also said.
In
his presentation yesterday, BG Trinidad and Tobago
deputy asset general manager Jon Harris
said "more is needed to be done to encourage
exploration activity in Trinidad find new reserves
to support the growth in gas demand."
"In addition to reconsidering the fiscal
terms of the new PSCs, for both shallow and deep
water blocks, the Government also needs to look
at fiscal terms in existing PSCs," Harris
also said.
Story
by Juhel
Browne from The Trinidad Express
-jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
The
Trinidad Express
Wednesday, February 27th 2008
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