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Entrepreneur, Michael Parris has been shortlisted among 21 finalists for the 2020 Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators Awards, a global competition that highlights and rewards businesses that demonstrate excellence in innovation. Parris’ company, Soular, is the only Trinidad and Tobago company to be shortlisted from among 136 applications received from 15 countries.
io consulting (io) announced that it has been awarded a contract for a bankable feasibility study (BFS) by NewGen Energy Limited (NewGen) to support development of a proposed carbon-neutral/green hydrogen production facility in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The hydrogen output from the project is intended as a “green” input to ammonia production at the Trinidad Nitrogen Company (Tringen) facilities in the Point Lisas Industrial Estate. io is a joint venture of Baker Hughes and McDermott.
bp Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT) is one of the country’s major hydrocarbon producers, accounting for more than half of the nation’s gas production. bpTT operates under the principles of no harm to people and no damage to the environment and is therefore committed to managing safe and reliable operations while also contributing to the broader development of Trinidad and Tobago, through maximizing opportunities for employees, suppliers and the communities in which we operate.
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.
Apache announced a major oil discovery at the Kwaskwasi-1 well drilled offshore Suriname in Block 58. The well was drilled using the Noble Sam Croft with Apache as operator holding a 50% working interest and Total holding a 50% working interest.
According to the company, the well identified two additional high-quality reservoirs, one adjacent to, and the other below the Yellowtail Field, further demonstrating the world class quality of this basin.
Heritage is aiming to identify and explore opportunities in deeper reservoirs within the company’s onshore North West District area, specifically below the Mid-Miocene unconformity and engage in joint studies for potential acreage acquisition. Opportunities may range from reservoir appraisal within producing fault blocks to outstep or deeper rank exploration.
The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) and BHP announced the successful completion of negotiations of a Gas Sales Agreement for the Ruby Field.
CARICHAM, the Network of Caribbean Chambers of Commerce, elected Dr. Thackwray “Dax” Driver, President & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago as its new Chairperson and Mr. Andrew Satney, Executive Director (ED) of the St Kitts & Nevis Chamber of Commerce as its new Vice-Chair at its first Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on June 29th, 2020. They succeed Ms. Lizra Fabien, ED of the Dominica Association of Industry & Commerce and Mr. Trevor Fearon, former CEO of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce who functioned as Chair and Vice-Chair during the Network’s first year of operations.
Touchstone has announced very encouraging results from their latest round of testing on the Cascadura-1ST1 reservoir. According to the company, gas analysis indicated sweet, liquids-rich natural gas with no hydrogen sulfide and no entrained water.
Saint Lucia and the UK-based Institute for Environmental Analytics have formed a new partnership to support the island’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy (RE).
It was reported by Reuters that Exxon has reduced its crude oil production at the Liza offshore field in Guyana due to the risk of excessive flaring. Gas flaring has been a problem at the Liza field since the equipment needed to reinject gas produced alongside the crude was not fully functional.
Our ambition is to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero. This means tackling around 415 million tonnes of emissions – 55 million from our operations and 360 million tonnes from the carbon content of our upstream oil and gas production. Importantly, these are absolute reductions to net zero, which is what the world needs most of all. We are also aiming to cut the carbon intensity of the products we sell by 50% by 2050 or sooner.
The Energy Chamber conducted a survey among signatories to understand their actions and steps taken toward becoming more energy efficient.
According to those surveyed, 95% of the companies indicated that they have attempted to reduce the use of natural resources and electricity in their operations and over 70% of respondents report that they have examined the possibility of including renewable energy sources in their operations.
Since 2010, the energy sector in Trinidad and Tobago has suffered from natural gas curtailments which have caused problems for the LNG industry and the petrochemical industry at Point Lisas. However, according to the Managing Director of the new private local enterprise, NewGen Energy Limited (NewGen), Philip Julien, “it might be helpful to reframe the challenge – the curtailments really mean that Point Lisas is actually suffering from a shortage of hydrogen – the essential input for ammonia and methanol production which is sourced from natural gas.”
JPS (the Jamaica Utility company) has increased the availability of a powerful energy management tool for businesses that have to make critical and sustainable decisions for efficient use of energy during this catastrophic COVID-19 season. This tool, which uses Smart Meter data, is already being actively used by approximately 60 commercial customers who possess single or multiple accounts, and who are realising tremendous benefits to their cost management programmes. Many of these current users consistently report the ease with which this facility enables the identification of major areas of potential energy savings, projection of monthly kilowatt hour consumption and validation of monthly electricity bills.
Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) and Columbus energy have announced an all share merger. The merger will create a ‘Caribbean and Atlantic margin-focused oil and gas champion’, BPC told investors.
The local and international energy sector continues to grapple with the effects of COVID-19. This pandemic has implications not only for the health and well-being of individuals but also for risk management and the continued safe operations of energy companies. This new dynamic makes the updating of response guidelines essential as companies globally strive to manage the new risks as well as continue to operate safely in the new normal. NGC and the Centre for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) have therefore partnered to produce updated response guidelines and insights to assist companies across the world to manage new risks and continue operating safely.
Last year, bp Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT) paid the government over TT$2.3b in taxes. This according to the recently released report on payments to governments for the year ending December 31st 2019. bpTT is the largest natural gas producer in Trinidad and Tobago.
When I discuss diversification with many people in Trinidad, “cheap natural gas” is often mentioned as a key strength that we should leverage to attract new export-oriented industries. The Trinidad and Tobago investment promotion agency, InvesTT, lists the very low cost of electricity as one of the central reasons why international investors should consider Trinidad and Tobago as an investment destination.
