BHP are targeting a Final Investment Decision (FID) on their Trinidad & Tobago northern area deepwater gas development by 2022, with first gas projected for 2026, once the project is approved. In an investor update on 11th November 2019, Geraldine Slattery, President Operations, Petroleum BHP, provided significant details on BHP’s potential deepwater developments in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to Slattery, “In Trinidad and Tobago, our exploration program has discovered a material gas resource in the Northern Licenses.” The Northern license area includes the Tuk-1, Bele-1, Boom-1, Hi-Hat-1 and Bongos-2 wells.

Source: BHP Petroleum Briefing

She added that the company has declared a 3.5 tcf (gross) discovery with potential further upside. The possible development could have facilities to deliver as much as 1.5 bcf/d of natural gas. At present the total production of natural gas in T&T is approximately 3.8 bcf/d.

Slattery said, “Whilst detailed development studies are just getting started, a hub development appears best suited to this play.”

To monetize the gas from the northern development, it appears that the company will be eyeing a path through LNG as well as supplying the domestic petrochemical market. She said that “The case we share today assumes access through existing LNG infrastructure in Trinidad and Tobago, which has capacity, whilst recognizing there are multiple development concepts to be considered.”

During the Q&A Slattery also said that in Trinidad, “We tend to access both the domestic market and the LNG market. The domestic market is a strong market, ammonia and methanol, and we see increasing demand there. In terms of the LNG facility, there is ullage available.”

bp, a major shareholder in the Atlantic LNG facility, hold a 30% non-operator share of the blocks in the northern license area.

She added that the northern licenses will be a “subsea integrated development and we assume at this point for the purposes of the illustration that we tie into shallow water infrastructure that allows access into ultimately the domestic market and the LNG market.”

When it comes to the southern licenses, Sonia Scarselli, the Vice President of Exploration and Appraisal said “We are still evaluating oil potential in the area, and how to further commercialise the gas discoveries at LeClerc and Victoria.”