BPTT to Fire Cannonball 2Q05

BP Trinidad & Tobago (BPTT) will start drilling on its Cannonball gas field off Trinidad's southeastern coast in the second quarter of 2005, Cannonball project manager Curtis Mohammed told BNamericas.

BPTT plans to drill three wells on the field using a single drilling platform, Mohammed said. Each well will produce 250-300 million cubic feet a day (mcf/d). The project is designed to produce some 800mcf/d of gas, most of which will be used to supply Atlantic LNG's fourth train (T4), which is expected to start up in 4Q05, Mohammed said.

According to a previous report, BPTT will supply 75% of the natural gas for all four trains in the complex. BPTT's remaining gas production from Cannonball will make up for natural decline on the company's other gas fields in the area.

The company's board approved financing for the Cannonball project in December 2003, and the company will build the facilities in 2004, Mohammed said, without saying how much the investment would be.

The field, which lies within BPTT's existing acreage, was discovered in September 2002, he said. BPTT currently produces some 1.5-1.8 billion cubic feet of gas a day in Trinidad, of which 50-60% is sold to Atlantic LNG and the remainder to the local residential and industrial markets. Spain's Repsol YPF owns 30% of BPRY Caribbean Ventures, the unit of British oil company BP that owns 100% of BPTT.

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