bpTT plans to drill an exploration well in 2016. Vice president Corporate Operations Giselle Thompson said the Savannah exploration well will be drilled close to the Juniper field off Trinidad’s southeast coast. It was one of the activities outlined by the energy company at the T&T Energy Conference on yesterday.
The company’s activities are focused on maximising production from existing fields, drilling new wells from existing platforms and new projects.
“Despite the current dark clouds over the industry we understand the cyclical nature of the global energy sector. We remain confident that there still remains much untapped potential in the Columbus Basin,” Thompson said.
“We have a very ambitious activity set to deliver in 2016 and beyond. Thus, we are committed to continuing to invest and to develop the acreage once the local investment climate continues to support further investments in the upstream.”
One of the highlights of the company’s operations in 2015 was high plant reliability of 98 per cent and improved system optimisation.
Last year bpTT had the lowest number of unplanned production shut downs (PSDs) since 2008, which is a direct result of its maintenance and integrity management programmes over the past few years. In fact the T&T operations had one of the highest plant reliability records across all BP operating sites. This year bpTT will continue with its multi-rig programme which will include working on existing wells to increase production and drilling new wells from existing platforms.
BpTT is also looking specifically at small pools or those reservoirs less than 1 trillion cubic feet.
“Resources that sit in small pools are very strategic to bpTT’s future and to maintaining our existing production profile. There is a significant quantity of small pool opportunities in the existing fields and also within future new field developments,” Thompson said.
In terms of upcoming projects, Juniper is progressing towards its start up in late 2017, with fabrication of the platform and drilling of wells.
By the end of 2016 all five of Juniper’s wells will be completed. Preliminary work has begun on the next proposed project: Angelin which is currently progressing through BP’s project approval process. The Angelin project was accelerated due to enhanced imaging brought by the Ocean Bottom Cable (OBC) seismic. The OBC data has allowed a better understanding of the subsurface.
“Despite the challenges of today we believe there remains a lot to be optimistic about. Our philosophy is to leave no molecule behind and therefore we continue to work on activities designed to discover more and recover more resources,” Thompson said.
BpTT operates in 904,000 acres off Trinidad’s east coast and has 13 offshore platforms and two onshore processing facilities.