There was a seven per cent decline in proven natural gas reserves in 2013, according to yesterday's presentation of the Ryder Scott 2013 Natural Gas Reserve Audit Report.Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said this decline should come as no surprise.
"This is an annual thing we do and the reserves have been declining since 2002 every year. It did not start declining four years ago. What we have to do is ensure there is a forward programme of exploration to continue to replace reserves at the rate at which we are using those reserves," he told the media at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Port-of-Spain.The report was presented by Herman Acu�a, managing senior vice president, international, Ryder Scott Company.
Some of the highlights included proven reserves of 12.24 billion cubic feet (bcf), probable reserves of 5.526 bcf and possible reserves of 6.116 bcf.Acu�a said production continued at a "robust pace" of 1.45 trillion cubic feet (tcf) in 2013, but noted that since 2002, there has been a "downward revision" of proven resources.Ramnarine said there is a lot of exploration going on now and the results will be seen in the coming years.
"Based on the work we have coming, and there is a lot of work with exploration between now and the end of the decade. BHP Billiton is doing a tremendous amount of exploration right now as is BP. There is going to be new discoveries of natural gas. There was one major discovery of natural gas in 2012. There was no major discovery of natural gas in 2013.
The reason is one of the contractors did not drill the three or four exploration wells they were supposed to drill in that year. They asked for those wells to be deferred. Had those wells been drilled in 2013, you would have seen different numbers here today."
Ramnarine said one of the "positive" messages coming out of the latest Ryder Scott report was that the overall resource base of the country was stable."That is if you add the four categories, proven, possible, probable and exploration resources, and Mr Herman Acu�a, who gave the report today, said that is good news, but it tells us that we have to continue to explore. We have to continue attracting companies as we live in a competitive world."
Ramnarine justified the presentation of an annual gas report, saying the Government believes in transparency."I think the country has grown to the level of transparency and therefore we do it every year. In any event, we contracted Ryder Scott every year for the next three years. It is expensive. But it is important for the country to know what the reserve base of the country is."