Drilling boosts oil production

In a statement, the Energy Ministry said currently in the offshore areas, there were six drilling rigs currently working for different clients. Two of these rigs, The West Jaya and the Rowan XL II, are drilling for bpTT in its Immortelle and Savonette Fields respectively The third rig, the Rowan Gorilla III is drilling for EOG Resources in the Osprey Field.

The fourth rig, Well Services Rig 110 is currently drilling in Trinmar for Petrotrin and is expected to spud the first exploration Minimum Work Obligation (MWO) well in mid-May in fulfilment of the new Trinmar licence which was granted by Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine on December 31, 2012.

A fifth rig, the Trinity Rig 2 is drilling for Trinity in the East Galeota block. A sixth rig, the semi- submersible Ocean Lexington is currently in Chaguaramas being prepared for its drilling campaign on behalf of Centrica, Niko Resources and BGTT.

There are also two workover rigs working for Petrotrin in Trinmar, with one of those currently exclusively dedicated to the South West Soldado reactivation project. The ministry said the level of drilling activity was also high on land as a total of eight drilling rigs have been used to drill wells for various operators.

Currently, there are three rigs drilling for the Lease Operatorships in the forest areas, two rigs drilling for the Farmouts in Quinam, and one each drilling for Petrotrin (in the Forest Reserve area) and Touchstone (formerly Primera Oil and Gas) in the Fyzabad district.

Meanwhile, the ministry and Petrotrin will launch the 2013 land-based bid round shortly. This is the first dedicated land-based bid round since the late 1990s and will offer three blocks totalling approximately 150,000 acres of state land to prospective bidders for the exploration of oil and gas. Ramnarine in the statement said he expected the increased level of drilling to continue in the medium term and it was a direct result of Government policy to use the fiscal regime to incentivise companies that invest in exploration and production.

“In the last two years we have applied a progressive policy with regard to the fiscal regime that has seen Trinidad and Tobago’s upstream sector become more competitive. The Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs has also worked closely with Petrotrin and other operators to make it easier to do business in the oil and gas industry,” he said.