By an OGJ correspondent
PORT OF SPAIN, Mar. 12 -- BHP Billiton Petroleum Pty. Ltd. and partners Wednesday announced plans to develop their oil and gas discovery on the Greater Angostura structure made in 2001 on Block 2c off Trinidad's eastern coast.
BHP is the operator with 45% and its partners are TotalFinaElf SA 30% and Talisman Energy Inc. 25%. The project has final approval from Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Energy.
Phase 1, estimated to cost $726 milllion with $327 million net to BHP, will be in 40 m of water 40 km off the northeast coast of Trinidad. This phase will cover the engineering, construction, and installation of production and transportation facilities.
BHP Billiton Petroleum Pres. and CEO Philip Aiken said Trinidad and Tobago will become a core development area for the company.
"Once production begins, Angostura will be one of the company's largest operated assets," he said.
BHP said gross oil reserves are estimated at 90-300 million bbl with a midcase, or P50 ,volume of 160 million bbl. The range of gross recoverable gas volumes is 1-2.3 tcf with a midcase volume of 1.75 tcf.
Milestone find
Block 2c harbors the first major oil discovery made in Trinidad in more than 30 years. The discovery well and subsequent appraisal wells yielded strong flow rates (OGJ Online, Mar. 8, 2002).
The wells tapped extensive pay in the prolific Oligocene play that, although it was always believed to extend from the South American mainland to Trinidad, previously had never yielded hydrocarbons in the Caribbean twin-island nation.
The discovery is expected to add 75,000-80,000 b/d of oil to Trinidad's crude production. That's a sharp increase from this year's average output of just under 150,000 b/d.
Development work in the field will include three satellite wellhead platforms tied into a central processing platform. A minimum of 25 wells is likely to be needed to fully exploit the structure.
First oil is expected to flow by fourth quarter 2004. Commercialization of the gas is expected to occur in the next phase, 3-9 years after the first oil.
The timing of gas sales depends upon reservoir performance and oil recovery considerations, BHP Billiton said.
More potential nearby
BHP is also the operator in the 150,000 acre Block 3a directly east of Block 2c and has a 30% stake in that block; its partners in Block 3a are BG Group PLC and Talisman 30% each and TotalFinaElf 10%.
The consortium signed exploration agreements covering Block 3a on Apr. 22, 2002, and since then has acquired 981 sq km of 3D seismic. Seismic data processing and interpretation are likely to take until midyear.
However, sources tell OGJ that BHP Billiton and partners are so keen about Block 3a's structures possibly replicating their success on Block 2c that they are expected to drill two wells on Block 3a before completing all the data acquisition.
The consortium believes that data from wells drilled by previous operator Conoco Inc. (now ConocoPhillips) are strong enough to support a decision to proceed with exploratory drilling, the sources said.