When Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar meets tomorrow with Royal Dutch Shell Group CEO Ben Van Beurden development of the Loran-Manatee fields between T&T and Venezuela is expected to be on the agenda. The visit, the first by a Shell CEO to T&T, is part of Van Beurden's visit to key countries in the region that are part of the recently announced �47 billion proposed merger of the energy giant with BG Group
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said he expected Shell to have a say in the future of the project.
"As we speak, the four companies in that project, PDVSA, Chevron TT, Chevron Global and BGTT, are preparing a unit operating agreement. Once that is finalised it has to be submitted to the ministers of energy in Venezuela and T&T for their approval," he said.
"We also expect Shell, now as they have come into TT and they have acquired BG's share in the Manatee field. to play a role in the future of the Loran-Manatee development.
Persad-Bissessar has asked Ramnarine to give her a brief as to the reasons why the project to develop gas sharing arrangements between Venezuela and T&T is yet to get off the ground.
During the recent Summit of Americas meeting in Panama, Persad-Bissessar met with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and executives from its state owned oil company PDVSA as well as Chevron Corp officials.
During Maduro's visit in February, the two leaders discussed the work of technical committees established last year to advance the gas sharing agreement. A unitisation agreement was signed for exploitation and development of hydrocarbon reservoirs of the Manakin-Cocuina Field that extends across the delimitation line between T&T and Venezuela, as well as the Framework Agreement on Energy Co-operation.
However, with no progress being made almost two months later, Persad Bissessar said she used the opportunity at the Summit to ask about the stalled project.
"There is black gold in the seas between the two countries," she said last week. "Let's get it out so we can do projects like housing, infrastructure, schools, hospitals."
The prime minister said both countries needed the revenue from development of the natural gas fields at a time when world oil and gas prices are down.
"Venezuela is very eager to get that project off the ground, I am eager to do everything, legal, to get that project off the ground. This has been going on for 10,15,20 years. Why can't we not have it done?"
Cross-border gas sharing
In 2007, T&T and Venezuela entered into a draft agreement on sharing gas deposits estimated at 22.65 trillion ft in three fields. A draft agreement signed in September 2013 allocated an estimated 10.25 trillion ft of gas reserves in the Loran-Manatee field, with 7.56 trillion ft, of the field's reserves assigned to Venezuela and the remaining 2.69 trillion ft, was earmarked for T&T.
?
US energy-giant Chevron already has a license from Venezuela to extract gas from the Plataforma Deltana complex that covers Loran and is in a joint venture with BG for the Manatee field on the Trinidad side of the border.