By Richardson Dhalai Thursday, August 30 2012

THE Energy Chamber has described the 2012 Ryder Scott natural gas audit for Trinidad and Tobago as having painted a “more positive” picture as compared to previous years.

The audit, which was presented on Wednesday at the Hyatt Regency Hotel by Ryder Scott vice-president Herman Acuna said at the end of 2012, the nation had 13.3 trillion cubic fee (tcf), of proven gas reserves, 6.03 tcf of probable reserves, 6.2 tcf of possible reserves and exploration reserves of 30.83tcf.

In a media statement, the Chamber noted that although proved reserves had declined last year, the “the size of the decrease was marginal at 200 billion cubic feet (bcf).” “In 2011, proved reserves declined by approximately two percent, whereas in 2010 proved reserves declined by 6.6 percent, “the Chamber stated, adding, “this year’s Ryder Scott audit of Trinidad and Tobago’s gas reserves painted a more positive picture of the energy sector’s reserves base when compared with previous years. Although proved reserves declined in 2011,”

“The new reserves added to the proved category came from upgrading of reserves from the probable category, which therefore showed an overall decline. This re-categorisation was as a result of upstream companies, particularly bpTT, reprocessing data and conducting new studies on their existing acreage,” the Chamber stated and noted that the studies would prompt “greater confidence in existing acreage becoming more commercially viable.”

The Chamber also commended on the nation’s ability to replace its reserves saying according to the report, “we were able to achieve an almost 100 percent reserve replacement.” “This is a significant improvement compared to 2010 when there was only a 35 percent reserves replacement. This reflects companies replacing the amount of gas they produced for the year through drilling activity and the improved appraisal studies,” the Chamber stated.

“The results of this audit are even more favourable given that the audit did not take into consideration the deepwater blocks and some shallow water blocks which show significant production potential,” the Chamber stated, adding a significant number of blocks had been excluded from the study- NCMA 2, NCMA 3, Block 4B, TTDAA 14 and Block 23A.

“All these blocks have production sharing contracts signed between Government and upstream companies and there are already clear exploration programmes in place. Apart from this, there was also a 4.5 trillion cubic feet increase in the country’s unrisked exploratory resources, meaning resources that are indicated by exploration campaigns but which do not yet have approved development plans in place,” the Chamber stated.

“This shows we have a greater potential for our 3P reserves base to increase in the future as new projects are approved and come on-stream. New exploration activities and studies by companies such as Centrica and BG Trinidad and Tobago helped to increase the resources identified in this category,” the Chamber added.

“The Energy Chamber supports the view that continuous activity in the upstream sector is key to improving our reserves base and we reiterate that we must approach any action plan to increase our reserves with a sense of urgency, not panic, as we attempt to place the energy sector on the path of sustainable growth,” the Chamber concluded.