In Trinidad and Tobago, the coronavirus has not had a huge impact in terms of project execution. Many of the large oil and gas projects around the world have experienced cancellations or significant postponements.
There are two ongoing projects you should keep your eye on in Trinidad and Tobago. The first is BHP’s Broadside.
According to BHP, the Deepwater Invictus is currently drilling the Broadside well in their southern licenses as part of Phase 5 of the company’s deepwater drilling campaign. This well will be the deepest well every drilled in T&T.
Broadside is located in TTDAA 3 off the east coast of Trinidad.
BHP’s deepwater campaign has thus far been successful, with several new discoveries in the northern deepwater blocks.
The Bélé-1 and Tuk-1 wells were drilled in Block 23(a) during March and April 2019 in water depths around 2,000 meters. The Hi-Hat-1 well was drilled in nearby block 14 during May and June 2019, in water depths of close to 1,800 meters.
These three discoveries, east of Tobago, have established additional gas volumes around the Bongos discovery and BHP will continue their evaluation. Technical work is underway to assess further exploration targets and commercial options in what BHP is now calling the ‘Northern Gas play’.
Touchstone Exploration’s Chinook well is also of great interest. The Chinook location is in close proximity to the successful Cascadura well and offsets an abandoned legacy well which was drilled in 1959. The original well noted oil while drilling in samples and core, yet was never tested or completed. Chinook-1 is expected to be drilled deeper than the original well and in a more seismically favourable position with the hopes of unlocking significant oil and gas reservoirs on the prospect.
Chinook was spud on August 13th so results are expected soon. The well was spudded using Well Services rig #80. The Chinook-1 well is targeting hydrocarbon prospects in the Herrera formation at depths between 8,000 and 9,200 feet, the same geologic horizon that was targeted in the company’s successful Coho and Cascadura discoveries.
Paul Baay, CEO of Touchstone Exploration said, ‘The spudding of the Chinook well marks the next phase of our Ortoire block exploration program that has already delivered two successful natural gas wells in just over a year. The Chinook well is being drilled in proximity to the original 1959 well and will further evaluate the turbidite concept eastward from the original Coho discovery. With the assistance of a 3D seismic survey, we are now expecting to move up structure to target the Herrera sands’.