BHP Billiton and its partners reported they will start drilling in a fault block south of the Greater Angostura development in hopes to increase natural gas production in Trinidad and Tobago.
The development will involve the drilling of three wells in 2015 with first gas expected to flow from the field in 2016.
Company sources told OGJ that the Greater Angostura development is not one contiguous block but one with several faults and therefore the development is in another of the fault blocks that make up the Greater Angostura development.
The block is estimated to contain 500 bscf of recoverable reserves.
BHP Biliton’s production in the Caribbean twin-island nation has averaged 409 MMscfd in 2014, just less than 10% of the country’s total daily production.
The news is fortuitous for an industry that has been reeling under the country’s gas curtailment.
Atlantic LNG’s gas production is down as well as production of methanol, urea, and ammonia, as the midstream and downstream companies are not getting the quantum they are demanding. As a result, they are operating below their nameplate capacities.
Greater Angostura field
Greater Angostura field lies in 36-46 m of water on the continental shelf, 37 km east of Trinidad and in the eastern Trinidadian sector of the Eastern Venezuela basin.
The shallow-water integrated oil and gas field development is part of Trinidad Offshore Block 2c. It is operated by BHP Billiton (45%) on behalf of joint venture partners. BHP first signed a production-sharing contract on Apr. 22, 1996, and acquired a 3D seismic survey in 1997. BHP and its partners’ license to operate the field continues until 2021 under a PSC with the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs.
The Greater Angostura field has a production life expectancy of 19-24 years.
The discovery well, Angostura-1, was drilled in 1999. This intersected 950 ft (gross) of gas pay. The hydrocarbon potential of the structure was confirmed by the drilling of Aripo-1, Kairi-1, Canteen-1, Kairi-2, Angostura-2, and Canteen-2 wells. Each of these exploration and appraisal wells also intersected sands. The Kairi and Canteen fault blocks contain most of the oil while Aripo has a thin oil rim overlain by a significant gas cap.
During the 6-year exploration phase of the PSC a total of four exploration and three appraisal wells were drilled, discovering significant oil and gas resources within a large faulted structure known as the Greater Angostura structure.
It first produced gas in May 2011 with a new gas export platform with a design capacity of 280 MMcfd of gas and is alongside the company’s existing facilities within Greater Angostura field.
However since then its gas production has been above 400 MMscfd because of greater demand from NGC.