(Trinidad Express, 19.Jul.2021) — Energy major BP said there is no “ongoing fight” between itself and the minority shareholder of Atlantic, Royal Dutch Shell.
In a statement issued late yesterday, responding to an Express story, the London-based energy company said it has been working closely with the other Atlantic LNG shareholders and the Government to explore the restructuring of Atlantic LNG as it believes it offers an opportunity to improve operating efficiency and commercial alignment.
“It is our goal to arrive at an outcome that improves value to the country while ensuring we have a competitive energy sector that can continue to attract the investments required to keep the production profile needed to satisfy downstream and LNG demand,” the statement said.
The company also made it clear that there would be no gas for Atlantic’s Train 1.
“In terms of gas supply, following the disappointing results from our 2019 infill drilling programme we have since refocused our production operations on maximising production from our existing fields in the short-term, actively taking measures to offset natural declines. Even though these factors helped production at the beginning of 2020, natural declines continue to be a challenge as we manage our gas deliverability for 2021.
“While we continue to progress our Matapal and Cassia C projects, the volumes from these developments will be put towards fulfilling our existing contractual obligations for Trains 2, 3, 4 and NGC,” it said.
The Express yesterday reported that no decision has yet been taken to mothball Atlantic Train I but there was an ongoing fight between BP and Shell, two of the world’s largest energy companies, for control of the still lucrative liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex at Point Fortin.
It was also reported that a proposal by Shell to have one single ownership structure for all four LNG producing trains at Atlantic—instead of the current situation in which each of the four LNG-producing facilities have different shareholdings and shareholders—would strengthen Shell’s control over Atlantic and reduce BP’s.
The Government has said that its decision to invest capital, through the National Gas Company (NGC) to keep Atlantic LNG’s Train 1 operational was “strategic” given that by 2024, it expects to have gas from the Manatee field.
The Manatee field, once known as the Loran-Manatee field, is a deepwater, cross border field between T&T and Venezuela.
Last year, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that the field has gas reserves of 10.07 trillion cubic feet (tcf), of which 2.71 tcf belongs to TT and 7.35 tcf belongs to Venezuela.
Based on a recovery factor of 69 per cent, Rowley had said T&T can expect to produce up to 1.872 tcf and Venezuela 5.076 tcf.
In December 2020, former energy minister Franklin Khan had told Parliament that: “Atlantic Train 1 will not be shutting down in January 2021. Train 1 will continue to operate in 2021 and will be part of wider negotiations, which have been taking place among the Atlantic LNG shareholders to form one unitised facility encompassing all four Trains.”
Khan had said that the NGC, acting on behalf of the Government, is taking the required actions to maintain the operability of Train 1, pending the finalisation of the negotiations of the structure for the unitised facility.
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