Woodside Energy has resumed operations following an incident in the Angostura field offshore Trinidad, which led to its natural gas production facility being shut down as a precautionary measure following a process safety incident.
The shutdown of the production facility resulted in at least four petrochemical plants on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate having to pause their production.
In a statement issued yesterday, Woodside Energy said on August 4, 2023, it commenced a phased restart of production at its Angostura facility.
“The facility had been shut in the previous week as a precautionary measure following a process safety incident. The phased restart commenced following completion of relevant safety checks, which will continue as production ramps up. As always, the safety of our personnel and our operations is Woodside’s priority,” the company added.
Woodside Energy said the process safety incident at its offshore facility occurred on July 25.
“All personnel are safe and accounted for. We are working to safely resume operations,” the company noted.
Energy Ministry Stuart Young revealed on July 28, that one of T&T’s major upstream gas suppliers had to shut in its gas production to deal with an “unplanned technical issue.”
“This unfortunate and untimely issue has led to a significant reduction in current gas supply which in turn has affected the end users of gas.
“This unforeseen event is being given the priority urgent attention that is necessary by the upstream entity. It is hoped that the situation will be resolved in the shortest possible time frame,” the Energy Ministry had said.
The National Gas Company (NGC) also said that while some plants were undergoing routine maintenance, others have had to suspend operations due to Woodside’s shut-in and reduced available gas volumes.
Woodside operates two shallow-water conventional oil and gas fields — Angostura and Ruby — in T&T.
According to Woodside Energy, the Greater Angostura field is an offshore conventional oil and gas field located 38 kilometres northeast of Trinidad.
The Angostura field was discovered in 1999, with first oil achieved in January 2005 (Phase 1). Phase 2 established gas sales in 2011. First gas for Angostura Phase 3 was established in September 2016.
Ruby is a conventional offshore oil and gas field located within the Greater Angostura Fields. First oil was achieved in May 2021.
The current development comprises a main central processing platform (CPP), gas export platform (GEP), four wellhead protector platforms (WPP) and onshore terminal. Flowlines connect the Ruby wellhead platform back to the CPP and GEP for processing.
Crude oil from CPP is transported to the Terminal Facility located in the south eastern end of Trinidad.
Woodside Energy produced an estimated average of 343 million standard cubic feet of natural gas for the period January to May 2023.
With T&T’s total natural gas production for the first five months of this year totaling an average of 2.65 trillion standard cubic feet, Woodside Energy’s output equaled 13 per cent of the total, making it the country’s third-largest supplier.
BpTT and Shell are T&T’s first and second-largest suppliers of natural gas.
