Linda Hutchinson-Jafar, Contributor
Gas drilling rig. - CONTRIBUTED
Port of Spain, Trinidad:
TRINIDAD AND Tobago's Prime Minister Patrick Manning insists there is no need to worry about the supply of natural gas for planned projects while meeting its obligations to existing gas-based projects.
Dismissing concerns from some quarters that government was moving too fast approving projects, considering the vast gas requirement needed by existing projects, Manning, a geologist, said there was a lot of oil and gas still to be found.
"There is no shortage of gas. We took a decision late last year that over the next year or two, there are six projects that will be given priority, and that there is gas to satisfy those projects at any rate, " Manning said last week.
Among the projects that are planned over the next three years are two aluminium smelters, an iron and steel plant, a urea/ammonia/melamine complex and urea/ammonia/nitrate/polypropylene complex which have a total investment of US$7.3 billion.
19,000 JOBS
The projects will create 19,000 jobs for construction workers, some who will have to come from Caribbean islands that are part of the recently launched Caribbean Single Market (CSM), Manning said.
In addition, government is also planning two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains, one based on gas from nearby Venezuela and another relying on gas from Trinidad and Tobago.
" What has been explored so far is virtually minuscule in relation to the amount of acreage available for exploration in the future. And therefore, when we speak publicly, we don't concern ourselves unduly with whether the gas will run out, not because we live in the clouds, but because we have a proper understanding of Trinidad and Tobago at this time as it relates to oil and gas production, and oil and gas exploration and production potential, " said Manning.
He estimated that the country was producing about 150,000 barrels or oil per day, while the oil equivalent of gas production per day stood at 650,000 barrels.
Last month, government announced the opening of the 2005/2006 competitive bid round for 11 onshore, near shore and shallow marine blocks off the country's north and east coasts to boost oil and gas reserves. The bid round will close at the end of March.
Dr. Lenny Saith who took over the Ministry of Energy portfolio last month said the competitive bid round opened at a time when there was high level of industry interest in the energy sector.
" As well as there is a need for the acceleration of exploration to identify additional natural gas resources to support LNG expansion and downstream natural gas-based projects," said Dr. Saith who replaced Eric Williams following his resignation from the Energy Ministry after corruption charges were brought against him and his subsequent appearance in court.
THEIR INTENTION
" Our intention is to secure oil and gas reserves to meet the needs of our rapidly expanding downstream industries and, by extension, leverage the growth of associated and non-associated industries."
Dr Saith said the oil and gas resources identified to date are "encouraging." The 3P (proven, probable and possible) oil resource base stand at 2,713 million barrels of oil, while 3P natural gas stand at 34.868 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Since the start up of the mega Atlantic LNG project in 1999, the country's total natural gas utilisation has jumped from approximately 1,350 million cubic feet per day (1350 MMcf/d) to almost 3,000 MMcf/d for 2005, a 40 per cent annual increase.
At the same time, the country's cushion of proved natural gas reserves decreased from 19.8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in 1999 to 18.8 Tcf in 2005.
One expert in the energy industry warned about a gradual depletion of the country's reserves as sporadic reserve additions have been inadequate to reverse the decline trend propelled by the higher demand.
Consequently, the Reserves to Production ratio, RTP, has more than halved from 40 years in 1999 to less than 18 years currently.
" At that level of consumption and assuming optimistically that the 18.8 tcf reserve cushion is maintained through successful exploration, the RTP would fall to below ten years," according to the energy expert.
" To maintain the current RTP ratio would require finding some 10-12 tcf over the next five years and maintaining a discovery rate of about 2 tcf/year. Successful exploration is therefore the key, particularly if we assume that no agreement is reached with Venezuela." Exploration in 2005, however, was disappointing in terms of new finds and the level of expected activity.
Chairman of Atlantic LNG, John Andrews is very optimistic that more natural gas will be found to fuel the continuing expansion in the energy and petrochemical industries.
" Well, the problem is we never have enough gas, they always (have to) go out and find more gas," Andrews said.
" One of the advantages of having additional plants is that people go out and look for gas, knowing that there will be an opportunity to use it.
MORE GAS TO BE FOUND
There is more gas to be found and people will go out and look at it," said Andrews, a former finance technocrat in the government.
Describing the energy sector as very buoyant at this time, Andrews sees the government optimising the use of natural gas resources to further expand the sector into a myriad of downstream industries.
" Therefore it's creating both the opportunity for the use of it, and also creating the opportunity for people to go out there and search for it, and that is generating a lot of economic activity in Trinidad and Tobago, especially with the high prices that petroleum is fetching in the world today. "BHP Billiton is also moving into its planned gas production in the Greater Angostura field from which it currently produces an average of 50,000 barrels of oil per day.
BHP which made several oil and gas discoveries in the off shore area known as the Greater Angostura field began oil production a year ago.
The bulk of gas that is produced is currently being re-injected into the Angostura reservoirs to support oil production from the field, while a portion is being used to fuel operations on the processing platform.
