(The Guardian, 23.Aug.2021) — An exploration well drilled by bpTT and EOG Resources has discovered one trillion cubic feet of gross natural gas resources, off the East Coast, off Trinidad according to documents from both companies.
Confidential documents from bpTT which Guardian Media has copies of and which were presented recently to the Government, show that the discovery was made.
The bpTT document simply point to a discovery in the well named Mento. bpTT’s document read, “Mento well discovery in February 2020 with partner EOG. Post well analysis completed.”
However, EOG resources Q2 financial results not only corroborate the discovery, but provides further information on the size.
The company’s financial results show that the discovery was one TCF of gross resource potential with 500 billion cubic feet (bcf) of net natural gas resources.
The well was started on January 2, 2020 and was drilled to a total depth of 14,769 feet.
While a discovery would have had to be revealed to the Ministry of Energy and Energy Resources, it was never announced to the country.
The confidential bpTT documents also show that a decision will be made in the fourth quarter to this year, on whether to sanction the development of the well.
Meanwhile, EOG resources has been earning in 2021 significantly higher prices for its natural gas produced in T&T than it did last year, according to the company’s financial statements for the second quarter 2021.
The financial statements for the second quarter revealed that EOG has earned an average of US$3.37 per million, standard cubic feet (mmscf). This compares favourably to 2020 when the company earned an average of US$2.35 per mmscf and higher than 2019 which was US $2.13 per mmscf.
The price is higher than the company had initially expected to earn from its sale in T&T and with increased production EOG’s earnings form its T&T outfit appears to be significantly improved compared to last year.
EOG sells all of its natural gas into the National Gas company. This effectively means that the NGC has been paying higher prices to EOG for its natural gas in 2021.
This, however, unlikely reflects a hit on the NGC since most of the gas is likely related to the price of petrochemicals.
This year commodity prices have been higher than last year as global economies begin to emerge from the impact of covid-19.
EOG’s accounts also show that it has produced an average of 223 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) for the second quarter this year. This is more than ten per cent higher than the company expected to produce in 2021 and it is 80 mmscf/d more than it produced a year ago that 45 mmscf/d more than its average output in the fourth quarter last year.
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By Curtis Williams
