Despite the disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic, Trinidad & Tobago’s gas industry has managed to deliver some major new projects over the past two years, with BHP’s Ruby project, Shell’s Barracuda and bp Trinidad and Tobago’s (bpTT’s) Matapal project being the most recent projects to come online.

These major oil and gas projects are helping bring additional gas to the market and reverse the declines in production that have characterised the sector in the recent past.

While managing in a pandemic has been a challenge because of strict quarantine restrictions, frequent testing and social distancing measures, Trinidad & Tobago has not seen any major upstream projects significantly delayed or cancelled. The latest project to come onstream has been bpTT’s Matapal project, with first gas being delivered seven months ahead of schedule.

Matapal is bpTT’s second subsea development in Trinidad & Tobago. It is comprised of three wells, which tie back into the existing Juniper platform, helping minimise development costs and the associated carbon footprint. It is located approximately 80km off the south-east coast of Trinidad and approximately 8 km east of Juniper, in a water depth of 163 metres.

The Matapal project has leveraged the existing infrastructure from the Juniper platform. If there is spare capacity (or ullage in the industry jargon) at neighbouring facilities, it will typically be cost efficient to tie in subsea wells to the existing infrastructure. This has the added benefit of typically delivering additional natural gas with a lower carbon footprint. While this may require brownfield modifications to existing infrastructure, this has the benefit of increasing throughput at the facility and typically requires less CAPEX for the field development.

Subsea tieback projects can also typically be executed at a much faster pace than a new offshore facility, improving project economics and returns plus delivering gas earlier to an industry still short on production.

bpTT stated that “Subsea infrastructure lowers the carbon footprint and reduces risk to personnel by hosting much of the equipment on the seafloor away from people. An important learning was that if standardised and proven subsea equipment is used, shorter development timelines are possible and cost savings can be realised; both in terms of CAPEX and OPEX, due to more reliable equipment and the use of common spares and inventory.”

Teamwork was frequently identified as the key to the project’s success with the various bp functions, contractors, and sub-contractors all united as a team and aligned towards a common goal. Key project leaders reported that collaboration, trust, and transparent communication were key to functioning as an integrated team.

Local content
The project employed many local contractors throughout the project both for brownfield work on Juniper and greenfield work. The engineering and contracting joint venture company, MassyWood, managed and delivered a significant project scope for the brownfield work, including fabrication and modifications on the existing Juniper platform, while leading local energy service company Tucker Energy Services, executed a significant scope of work to support the drilling programme.

According to bpTT, Matapal’s local content plan was an important enabler of the company’s commitment to maximise local content and ensure that as much value as possible was retained in country.

Renee Isaacs, bp Matapal Project Manager told EnergyNow that “Local content was a critical component to the success of bp Matapal project. Capitalising on local expertise and completing work scopes in region not only provided opportunity for community ownership of this gas development, but also simplified interfaces from purchasing material through to construction and start up. It was an honor to work with local contractors and the project’s in-country team to see Matapal through the finish line of providing gas to Trinidad and Tobago.”

Right the First Time
According to bpTT, detailed planning, including incorporating lessons learned from recent bpTT projects and other bp subsea tieback projects all contributed to the project’s success. In addition, they were able to leverage the learnings from bpTT’s existing Juniper project and embedding key design and execution principles from the concept selection stage.

During the project a series of “Right the First Time” workshops and quality campaigns were conducted with contractors, including the front-line staff, which were important for actively sharing what good and bad look like.

Early identification of risks, development of risk mitigation plans, and proactive risk management was an integral part of the planning. This led to the simplification of the subsea execution methodology to ensure activities were optimised and/or eliminated without introducing risk to the project. In addition, continuous re-assessment of risks and coupling to the activity set was done.

Operating safely in a global pandemic
According to bpTT, the key to being able to operate safely was constant communication and engagement with the integrated team, including our EPCIC contractor (Engineering, procurement, construction, installation & commissioning), all other contractors/sub-contractors and all bp entities—projects, wells, operations, and all supporting functions. This was especially the case because of the ever-changing COVID-19 protocols, as both Trinidad & Tobago and the global community, learnt more about the management of COVID and what this meant for the safety of all personnel.

For much of the project execution, Trinidad & Tobago’s borders remained closed and only limited travel exemptions were granted, with stringent testing and quarantine requirements. The company had to learn to utilise remote or virtual site visits to ensure a bp presence, while continuing to abide by international travel and company safety restrictions.

The pandemic did not just impact on people visiting Trinidad & Tobago or the offshore facilities, it also effected the supply chain and the delivery of key project components. Michael Daniel, Project general manager, at bpTT told EnergyNow “One of the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic was the impact upon global supply chains. Various pieces of equipment for Matapal were being manufactured in Brazil and in parts of Europe—places that were severely affected by the virus. The team had to work closely with our bp central supplier teams and the contractors to implement interventions to be able to secure delivery to our project on time, and to safeguard employees. It required careful planning and close coordination among all involved.”