Trinidad extends shallow-water oil bids

The Trinidad and Tobago government said it will seek to "arrest the decline in oil and gas reserves" as the country extended the date for receiving bids for drilling in shallow waters.

Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan said that the reserves had been declining, as had been evidenced by the 2009 Ryder Scott Reserves Audit, which estimated the country's reserves at 28.15 trillion cubic feet and its reserves-to-production ratio at 10 years.

"Our crude-oil production has fallen to approximately 100,000 barrels per day from a high of 228,000 in 1978," said Seepersad-Bachan.

"We are committed to arresting the decline in our oil and gas reserves by encouraging the increased and periodic exploration of our resources."

The energy minister said companies have already paid the fees as part of the bidding process for the blocks on offer, amounting to TT$4 million.

The new companies submitting bids are the German-based RWE DEA AG, and the American company, Apache Corporation.

Other companies, Centrica Energy, Repsol, Voyager and others, have expressed interest in bidding for the seven blocks in Trinidad's north, east and west-coast marine areas.

"Most of the local operating companies already have the data and so are at liberty to pay the bid fee whenever they choose. We, therefore, expect the number of companies interested will rise before the closing date for bids rise," Seepersad-Bachan said.

The original date for submission of bids was August 11, but the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration has agreed to a request by some companies to extend the closing date by a month to September 8.

"It is also proposed to launch the bid round for the deepwater blocks on September 8. The date of announcement of successful bids for the shallow and average blocks will be no later than November 12, 2010," she added.

Once the successful bids are selected, production sharing contracts will be issued initially for six years.

"But upon the achievement of commercial discovery, the contract may be renewed for the portion of the contract area on which the discovery was made, for a term of 25 years from the effective date of the contract," said the energy minister.

"Where a commercial discovery is not achieved within six years, the contract will terminate automatically."

Seepersad-Bachan said that the government has also moved to update measures to deal with a possible oil spill.

The committee is expected to submit a report within five weeks.

- CMC