Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:14 hours 43 min ago
New gas exploration in T&T
Seepersad-Bachan: Projected income will shrink
Published: 6 Sep 2009
Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan
The Government’s plan to attract investors in the energy sector will not be realised until the global credit crunch has improved. In the meantime, T&T’s low gas reserves have put the country in a precarious position, former National Petroleum chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, said. Speaking to the Sunday Guardian last week, the energy spokesman chastised the Government for seeking to revise the petroleum tax regime, only now, to make it more competitive for foreign investors. “They were supposed to have revised it a long time ago for investors to undertake deep water exploration. “Given the financial global situation now, they are not going to get direct foreign investment as easily flowing as before because of the risk and heavy capital involved in deep water exploration. “Investors are actually pulling out.”
Seepersad-Bachan said the Government would now have to give away more concessions to attract investors and the projected income from finds will be much smaller. If there are no gas finds until 2012, T&T’s gas reserves will be down from ten to seven years, Seepersad-Bachan said. “It will take almost a year to get the bidding process done and award a contract for deep water gas exploration. “Then, drilling will not get done until 2012...and there is no guarantee that they will find anything at all. “The deep water area has come up empty before. There have been no significant finds over the last few years.” Production in shallow areas has been very lucrative and cheaper for multi-nationals to drill, she said. “But, there is nowhere else in shallow areas to explore.” Further, even if new gas fields are discovered, the price of gas may not improve, Seepersad-Bachan noted.
“There is an oversupply of gas on the international market.” She said this was why T&T may go into recession. “Because the energy sector continues to be the engine of growth here. Lots of service, finance and insurance companies centered around the energy industry will close if there is no improvement. “We are in a precarious position.” Economist, Winston Dookeran, said whether the Government’s talk about deep water gas exploration is really “pie in the sky” is left to be seen. “I don’t know if it’s an attempt to appease the nation, to give the impression that there is a pipeline of investors waiting to flow in. “This does not seem realistic.”
Noting that T&T’s economic outlook seems gloomier, the Congress of the People leader said the Ryder Scott report should be made public so there can be full debate on it.
The Tall (empty) Buildings
The Tall (empty) Buildings and the Palace will save us!
After the November conference, the world will want to invest here after they see for themselves how we effectively manage Crime, Health Care, Education, The Environment, Social Services, Infrastructure, Agriculture, etc etc. for we are a shining example of how so little can be achieved with so much!
I dont think this woman
I dont think this woman really knows what she is talking about - other than her purely political stint in NP I doubt she really has any Energy experience.
The situation is actually worse than she says and she would know this if she understood what happens between exploration and production. This is expensive as there is no infrastructure for deep oil. I dont know what Ms Bachan is talking about - there are no wells drilled in any deep blocks. Current operators have drilled in the deeper/older areas of their relatively shallow acreage. Developing deep horizons off the shelf is a different story which is what these deep blocks are about. This is likely the order:
You have to award leases - More than a year away
Shoot sisemic and spend long time interpreting this data and possibly planning exploration well candidates - well over a year as data is probably nonexistent for these blocks.
The operator has to develop a plan and convince their money managers that the plan is globally competitive in these times - hard considering the low project cost of gas, better if they are going for liquids/oil. Convince their managers to spend at least 100MUS for an initial exploration program or pay the penalties to get out of any contractual obligations if the data doesnt look good (very possible). These exploration wells will allow operator to confirm their sisemic suspicions and calibrate/adjust proposals for development. Finds will have to be very significant as there is no infrastructure to produce this. Armed with this data they will have to make a concrete business plan to develop any finds - this will likely be a multi billion US$ development, so finds will have to be significant and include healthy oil/liquids. After this is approved you then have to go out and build all this iron and install it along with any infrastructure needed for production as this is all entirely new. You then have to develop a well program that might include phases of a few wells each, and go out and hire the contractors/experts (we have little experience in this here) for this. Then if you successfully drill these wells you start your first production.
Does this sound like something that could be done in 2-3 years? These are points she should have made as they support her political point of view. I really get irked when politicians pretend to be technocrats when all they have is a layperson's perspective with some other agenda, with statements like "...there is no guarantee that they will find anything at all" - Where are there any guarantees in Exploration?? Geeze, this is not buying a fridge at Courts. The COP had better buck up if they want to convince people that they are any different.
In the meantime, T&T’s low
In the meantime, T&T’s low gas reserves have put the country in a precarious position, former National Petroleum chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan, said. Speaking to the Sunday Guardian last week, the energy spokesman.....quote.
Who is she a "spokesman" for? the COP party! so this is a very biased statement from a former "chairman" of a state owned company this woman is NOT a qualified Gas or ECONOMIST of any sort this is another Guardian con job on the uninformed public directed at confused angry worried voters of Indian descent.
The last time I checked the PM was even better qualified that her since he is a internationaly recogised Geologist!
Ms Bachan is clearly playing politics with a job she USED to do that is as spokes person (P.R) for a stateowned firm.
Who internationally
Who internationally recognizes the PM as a geologist? He might have a geology degree but the last time i checked no one recognizes him.
The El Furial runs under TT,
The El Furial runs under TT, The prolific Venezuelan reservoir just onshore in geological terms in Morichal runs under TT. The reservoir just does not stop at political borders. It will take a clever TT Govt R&D programme to find it, As with the Bakken and Spanish formations in the Williston Basin in the Dakotas, the US oil majors walked away, saying its barren, leaving it to a small independent oil co geologist, working from his basement to find it as he believed in it, 9 billion barrels reservoirs and who is laughing now? I think the El Furial vein runs highly inclined and deep under TT. El Furial runs to 20K feet, some wells. Come on TT, lets have our own exploration company, the majors control your energy search.
Kram, agree with you, Deepwater off Angola takes just over 7 years to produce first oils to FPSOs. It can de done by FPSOs, no pipelines to export terminals.
COP need come clever here. Manning? I havent heard his contribution on the geological scene internationally. If you dont practise the geological teachings you will forget it.