BP and Woodside Energy are confident that their joint venture in the Calypso deepwater natural gas field off Trinidad and Tobago will get the go-ahead by the end of 2025, according to company executives.
Calypso’s Potential
The Calypso discoveries, located in the Columbus basin near Venezuela, hold an estimated 3.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas, and are planned to produce 700 million cubic feet per day, said Trinidad’s energy minister Stuart Young at an energy conference in Port of Spain on Monday.
BP, which holds a 30% stake in the project, expects to make a final investment decision (FID) as early as next year, said David Campbell, head of BP Trinidad and Tobago, in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.
“They are working through capital value process, so increasing engineering, gradually selecting concepts (and) moving towards a final investment decision, which I hope will come in the next year or two years,” Campbell said.
Australia’s Woodside, which operates Calypso, is also progressing with the project and believes it can unlock the deepwater potential in Trinidad, project director Stacy Patrick said on Tuesday during the conference.
Trinidad’s Energy Needs
Trinidad and Tobago, a small Caribbean nation with a population of 1.4 million, relies heavily on its energy sector, which accounts for about 40% of its gross domestic product and 80% of its exports, according to the World Bank.
However, the country has been facing gas shortages due to declining production and rising domestic demand, which have affected its downstream industries such as petrochemicals and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The government has been urging operators, especially offshore drillers, to bring new gas discoveries to market as soon as possible, and has offered incentives such as tax breaks and royalty waivers to attract investment.
Trinidad hopes to catch more interest from international oil and gas companies through a bidding round for deepwater blocks planned for this year, Minister Young said at the conference.
Deepwater Opportunities
BP and Shell were awarded three deepwater blocks last year, including an area once explored by Exxon Mobil where it failed to find hydrocarbons.
Campbell said he believed BP and Shell could succeed where Exxon failed, using better technology and data.
“There are many examples of fields around the world, including some of ours, where others have come in afterward and found things we have not seen because they are using better technology and that is the reason,” Campbell said.
BP’s future in Trinidad is in the deepwater, Campbell said. The company has discovered more than 20 tcf of gas and a billion barrels of oil in the Columbus basin, where it is still developing gas projects.
The Calypso project is a promising step towards leveraging the abundant natural gas resources in Trinidad and Tobago and powering a sustainable, clean-energy future for the country and the region.
Source: Reuters
