Khan: More gas in 12 months

We had a billion cubic feet of deficit,” he said.

On oil production, he reiterated that Government’s target is to increase production to a minimum of 100,000 barrels a day by the end of 2019. Oil production is now 75,000 barrels a day.

In the debate on the mid year review of the budget during yesterday’s Senate sitting, Khan said that BP Juniper project is due to produce its first gas next month.

“Juniper’s peak production should occur in 2018 with 590 million cubic feet a day.” That would be taking away 590 million from billion.

The joint venture between the EOG and Sercan, he said, which is already on stream, started production last month.

“In a couple of months time, production will peak at 275 million cubic feet a day,” he said.

An additional, 200 is expected from Atlantic LNG Trinidad Onshore Compression (TROC) project this year.

Beyond this year, he said, the Angelin project is expected to bring on stream in the first quarter in 2019, about 500 cubic feet a day. Beyond Angelin, Khan said, BP continues is now drilling in two exploration wells - Savannah and Macadamia.

“There is only one way known to man to produce oil and gas, that is, by drilling wells,” he said.

At present, he said, BP has three rigs drilling offshore and EOG has one. “Four offshore drills. That has not happened for years.” Shell will be bringing two rigs at the end of this year, he said. “All things being equal, we are looking at five to six offshore rigs operating offshore on Trinidad’s east coast,” he said.

The Ocean Bottom Nodes (OBN) seismic system (an imaging technology of the ocean floor), he said, will improve chances of success in exploration.

Shell will also be doing OBN work and drilling on the Dolphin platform while BG is in the process of developing the Starfish prospect.

He said there had been some issues with the Starfish project but that has since been resolved” in the Houston labs”.

BHP has announced a gas sign in the LeClerc well. On the quantum and the economics of the development, Khan said, “That has to be worked out. I won’t say more on that right now.” Noting the need to increase oil production, Khan said, “Because of the state of Trinidad and Tobago, oil is still a better business than gas.” he said that there is no query about the price of oil.

“Every single crude in the world,” he said, “is benchmarked with a reference price. We produce good crude here.” TT is fortunate that its gas resources, he said, will be managed by three of the top energy companies in the world — BP, Shell and BHP, an Australian company.