Enill:
Exploration bids later in year
PORT SPAIN
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 02 08
New bid rounds for natural gas exploration are
scheduled to take place later this year, in keeping
with recommendations from last year's Ryder Scott
gas audit.
The Houston-based gas auditing
firm said in its report there is only 12 years'
worth of the identified
reserves left and called for "a greater emphasis" to
be placed on what it labelled as 37.1 trillion
cubic feet of "unidentified" reserves.
"To this end, the bid rounds have been scheduled
for shallow blocks in North Coast Marine Area and
South East Coast Area in late 2008 and for the
Deep Atlantic in 2009," Energy Minister Conrad
Enill said yesterday.
In addition, Enill also announced
that the "Government
will be engaging the services of a consultant to
develop a Natural Gas Governance Framework" since
the Petroleum Act and Regulations that have been
governing both the oil and gas sectors were "principally
designed to treat with oil operations."
Enill made the announcements yesterday as he delivered
the opening address at the two-day Trinidad and
Tobago Petroleum Conference 2008, which ends today.
The conference, which is taking place at the Hilton
Trinidad Hotel and Conference Centre, St Ann's,
is being co-hosted by the South Trinidad Chamber
of Industry and Commerce and The Geological Society
of Trinidad and Tobago.
Enill spoke of the need for increased
gas production as he noted that oil output had
dropped from 160,000
barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 1990 to 123,00
bpd in 2007 and there is "substantial heavy
oil resources which to date remain unexplored".
The Ryder Scott audit last year came as gas production
increased from 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent
per day in 1990 to 681,000 barrels of oil equivalent
per day in 2007, which many believe has contributed
to the 12-year prediction for the existing identified
reserves.
"In terms of production, Government will
be implementing the recommendations of the 2007
Ryder Scott Reserves audit, namely: a greater emphasis
needs to be placed on the country's exploration
resources, now estimated at 37.1 tcf," Enill
said. "A high level of exploration activity
leading to drilling of exploration prospects is
now an imperative to build the probable and possible
reserves base," Enill also said of the Ryder
Scott recommendations.
He made the announcements as the
Prime Minister's Office issued a release which
said that British
Gas Group head of Global Operations for LNG Mark
Houston met with Prime Minister Patrick Manning
at Whitehall, Port of Spain, yesterday that BG "looks
towards expanding its operations here and increasing
exploration."
Story
by Juhel
Browne from The Trinidad Express
-jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
The
Trinidad Express
Tuesday, February 26th 2008
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