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 TRINIDAD
& TOBAGO
Central America
The island of Trinidad lies 12 km east of the
Venezuelan coastline and the much smaller Tobago is another 30 km to the
northeast. Although small, Trinidad has had a long oil history, starting
with the West Indies Petroleum Company, which drilled two shallow wells
in 1866, while another company began distilling tar from the so-called
La Brea Pitch Lake (see picture) near the coast in southwest Trinidad in 1867.
 The first deep well was drilled in 1907 and production
began in 1909 closely followed by the
drilling of the first major field; Forest Reserve in 1913. The
country owes its oil and gas to deposition of sediments from the South
American continent into preserved rift basins south of the Antillean
island arc. It is an extension of the oil rich East Venezuelan basin
flanked by a continental shelf that runs southwards along the margin of
South America.
All oil production comes from either onshore in the south
of Trinidad or from shallow waters in the west and east. Gas production
mostly comes from offshore the east and southeast, although new output
from offshore waters to the north has begun.
Over the last 10 years over 20 offshore PSCs have been
signed by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries for areas in the
southeast, east and north (called the South Coast Marine, East Coast
Marine and North Coast Marine Areas respectively) and more are planned,
especially in the deep waters to the north and east.
West coast: Offshore exploration began in 1954 in
the Gulf of Paria, close to the oil-bearing onshore region southwest of
Trinidad. Production from the Texaco-operated North Marine and East
Soldado group of fields began in 1955.
The Brighton Marine field was discovered in 1952 with an
onshore well and was brought onstream in 1958 via a 36-slot offshore
platform (at the time the world’s biggest) installed 2 km from Brighton.
Between 1958 and 1973 eight further platforms were installed in this
field and 146 wells were drilled although around a third of the
production originated from onshore wells (all now abandoned).
Other smaller offshore fields have also produced in the
area including from a wellhead platform in the Point Ligoure block
between the coast and Soldado East. The basin is now largely depleted
(both onshore and onshore) with some tail-end oil production continuing
from the Soldado and Brighton Marine areas and from small satellite
accumulations.
East coast: In 1961 Amoco (now BP) began exploring
offshore in the Columbus Basin south of the Darien ridge on the east
(East Coast Marine). Galeota-1 produced oil but the area was considered
uneconomic until a series of major oil and gas fields, 30 to 50 km from
the coast, was discovered from 1968 onwards, including Teak in 1969,
Samaan in 1971 and Poui in 1972.
Oil and gas production began from Amoco’s Teak platform
in 1972. In 1973 Amoco’s Cassia gas field was discovered close to the
Venezuelan border (South Coast Marine) and it began producing gas
through a 60 km pipeline in 1983. By 1995 the Cassia and nearby
Immortelle and Flamboyant fields were producing over 50% of the
country’s gas.
The BG-operated Dolphin gas field, located 80 km due east
of Trinidad close to the shelf edge commenced production in 1996. Dolphin supplies the Atlantic LNG plant (ALNG). In
2002 BG received approval for development of the Dolphin Deep field and
Starfish fields in the same area. These are produced through upgraded
Dolphin facilities via sub-sea completions and pipelines and will be the
first sub-sea developments in Trinidad.
 ALNG in Point Fortin in the south-west of
Trinidad, at the heart of the old oil producing area, came into
operation in 1999. Atlantic Train 1 uses 4.5 Bcm of gas to produce 3.1
million tonnes of LNG per year, which is sold to markets in the
northeast United States, Puerto Rico and Spain.
Construction began on a 2 Train expansion project in late
2000. Train 2 commenced operations in August 2002 and Train 3 in April
2003. In June 2003, a 4th Train was approved, the largest LNG train ever
constructed, coming onstream in 2006.
In 1999 gas was discovered at Angostura and Aripo by BHP
Billiton in a new area in the Nariva sub-basin north of the Darien
ridge. In 2001 two oil fields (Canteen and Kairi) in 40m of water were
found in this area of East Coast Marine Block 2c, known as
Angostura. The reservoirs were previously untested sandstones of
Oligocene age and BHP Billiton is developing the first phase of an
integrated oil and gas project.
New gas fields have also recently been discovered by BP
in the south of the region, near to Cassia.
BP’s Kapok field has been developed with the world’s
second largest natural gas processing production platform. Further
south gas accumulations straddle the common maritime boundary with
Venezuela (Plataforma Deltana). In 2003 a memorandum of understanding
was signed with Venezuela for the unitisation of these fields, setting
the framework for technical evaluation and joint development.
 North coast
(see picture): In 1970 blocks on the north coast
(North Coast Marine) were licensed and gas was discovered here in 1971.
However, it was not until 2001 that development of three BG-operated gas
fields in water depths of around 150m (Hibiscus, Poinsettia and
Chaconia), located 40 km off the coast, commenced.
They are being brought onstream in up to four phases to
supply gas to ALNG Trains 2 and 3 expansion projects. The Hibiscus
platform was installed in September 2001 and first production was in
August 2002 into the newly commissioned Train 2. Phases 1 and 2 were
then completed on the Hibiscus and Chaconia fields in the third quarter
of 2003. Phase 3 involves drilling the Poinsettia field. Production into
Train 3 started in April 2003.
Deepwater exploration for gas/condensate is proceeding
further north and northeast.
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