LNG

Trinidad and Tobago said the Caribbean nation would be opening formal talks with Venezuela following a US go-ahead to jointly develop a natural gas field that could help boost and safeguard LNG production from Trinidad’s Point Fortin LNG export plant.

UK major BP said the Cassia C natural gas development in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad & Tobago had safely delivered first gas and given a boost to feed-gas resources for the Point Fortin export plant in Trinidad.

The Cassia C project is BP’s first offshore compression platform and its biggest offshore facility.

BP said the project would enable the production of low-pressure gas resources from the Greater Cassia Area.

The platform is BP’s 16th offshore facility and is connected to the existing Cassia hub which lies about 35 miles off Trinidad’s southeast coast.

“Cassia C is expected to produce, at peak, about 200-300 million standard cubic feet a day of gas,” said the UK company.

“Production will go towards meeting the BP Trinidad & Tobago unit’s gas supply commitments and will be important to sustaining LNG and petrochemical industries,” said BP.

David Campbell, the President of BP’s Trinidad unit said the first gas from Cassia C was important for the nation’s resource availability.

Unlocking resources

“This first offshore compression facility will allow us to unlock new resources and bring much-needed gas to market,” explained Campbell.

“I am immensely proud of the teams which have been working hard to bring this facility online,” he stated.

Ewan Drummond, BP senior vice president for projects, production, and operations said it was a great achievement to deliver the project.

“Cassia C is a great example of BP’s resilient hydrocarbons strategy in action - providing the energy the world needs now and helping us invest in the energy transition,” added Drummond.

BP said that the Cassia C platform’s jacket - its legs and supporting frame - was built at Trinidad Offshore Fabricators (TOFCO) and installed in 2020.

Its topside structure was built in the McDermott fabrication yard at Altamira in Mexico and was installed in 2021.

BP added that the Cassia C project was an important step in the nation’s Area Development Plan, which includes a combination of exploration, development projects and activities focused on maximizing production from the available acreage.

“First gas from Cassia C follows the recent sanction of the Cypre development and the execution of the gas supply agreement with the National Gas Company,” explained BP.

BP operates projects in about 680,000 acres off Trinidad’s East Coast and its Caribbean subsidiary now has 16 offshore platforms and two onshore processing facilities.

April 1 (LNGJ) - Shell said production had started on Block 22 and NCMA-4 in the North Coast Marine Area in Trinidad and Tobago to boost LNG production capability at the Point Fortin liquefaction plant in Trinidad called Atlantic LNG. Colibri is a backfill project that is expected to add around 30,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 174 million standard cubic feet per day of sustained near-term natural gas production, rising to 250 mmscf per day at peak.

   “The start-up of Colibri follows the amendment to the Block 6 Production Sharing Contract for the Manatee field, marking yet another significant milestone in Shell’s growth strategy,” said Shell. “This will allow for the delivery of gas both domestically and internationally through Atlantic LNG,” added the UK-based major.

Dec 9 (LNGJ) - Trinidad and Tobago, the LNG exporter whose principal market was formerly the United States before the shale-gas revolution and which now supplies Europe and South America, expects to see shipments drop by around 20 percent in 2021 because of feed-gas declines at the Atlantic LNG liquefaction plant at Point Fortin.

   Atlantic LNG exported 12.50 million tonnes last year compared with 15.3 MTPA of nameplate capacity and this total is lower in 2020 and will also fall in the coming year because of a supply deficit for Train 1. BP, which supplies the feed-gas for Train 1 at the four-Train facility, said its infill drilling had failed to deliver at forecast levels to ensure supply. Executive said that it was expected that Train 1 would be put in operations-ready mode for all of 2021 into 2022 as upstream results are investigated.