The Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Franklin Khan in a live virtual press conference has indicated that the crude oil reserves in T&T has increase since 2012. In the Minister’s presentation, he said that the crude oil reserves audit was conducted by Netherland Sewell and Associates (NSAI) and reflected the reserves position at the end of 2018.
Minister Khan said that in 2018 proved reserves jumped by 10.3 % from 199.5 million barrels to 220.1 million barrels. He added that probable reserves rose by 16.6% from 85.5 million barrels to 99.7 million barrels and possible reserves climbed by 8.5% from 124.8 million barrels to 135.5 million barrels. The 20.6 million barrel increase in proved reserves is a hopeful sign, and is thanks to the maturity of, and operator commitment to proved undeveloped opportunities Onshore Trinidad and in the West Coast Marine Area.
The energy minister also said that NSAI’s Best Estimate of the nation’s Contingent Resources (2C) rose by 17.2% - from 58 million barrels in 2012 to 68 million barrels in 2018. A 36.8 % decrease in the 2C estimates for the East Coast Marine Area between audits was offset by a 25.7 million barrel addition from Onshore Trinidad in 2018. This contribution came from several well-known fields such as Barrackpore, Penal and Parrylands, as well as one operational and one proposed flooding project. While promising, several geologic, economic, and technical hurdles need to be overcome for these resources to be promoted to reserves.
He said “I’m proud to announce that NSAI’s independent, best estimate of our unrisked prospective resources is now a mammoth 3.2 billion barrels. This is an increase of 773.4% over the unrisked prospective resources at 1 January 2012 of only 368.2 million barrels.
The notable resource estimate, more than 90% of which was identified in the deepwater would not be possible without the achievements of BHP and its partner Shell in acquiring, processing and interpreting prospects identified in the Southerly Deepwater Blocks of TTDAA 3, TTDAA 5 and TTDAA 6, he said.
He added that with the Invictus drillship now in transit to Trinidad and Tobago from the Gulf of Mexico to drill the Broadside prospect, a commercial discovery in any of its several stacked Miocene targets, would de-risk the prospective resources identified by NSAI significantly and be very good news for Trinidad and Tobago.
The Minister indicated that between 2012 and 2018, the share of total proved reserves belonging to the East Coast Marine area declined from 31% to 18%, due to natural depletion while onshore’s share of the total increased to 52% from 36% due to better performance. The West Coast Marine Area’s share meanwhile decreased slightly from 33% to 30%.
The shift in reserve distribution are due to:
The acceleration in the average annual decline rate for Marine oil production from 3.4% to 4.9% between audits.
The decrease in the average annual decline rate for Onshore oil production from 1.0 % to 0.9% between audits.
The latter achievement may be attributed to the diligent work of the many Onshore licensees and sublicensees he said.
Looking forward the minister indicated that since this audit ended in 2018 the following projects will likely have a positive impact on reserves:
BHP’s Block 3a Ruby field
Touchstone and Lease Operators’ activities in Ortoire and Rio Claro (Barakat, Coho, Cascadura discoveries.)
Columbus Energy‘s Saffron Well, located in the South West Peninsula.
The 2020 DeepWater Nomination Period is almost completed and should result in a Competitive Bid Round that would permit the continued development of reserves and resources for the future.
Trinmar Mobile Offshore Production and Compression Unit (MOPU)
According to the Minister, This is the second audit produced by NSAI for the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI) after Cabinet in 2011 approved the engagement of an independent petroleum consultant to conduct audits of the crude oil reserves of Trinidad and Tobago for two separate periods for the MEEI.