PM leads talks with BP in UK

THE recent drilling programme of BP in TT plus the future of liquefied natural gas (LNG) were featured in “very frank and detailed” talks at BP headquarters at St James Square in London yesterday between a delegation led by the Prime Minister and a high-level team BP that included BPTT President Claire Fitzpatrick.

The TT delegation included Energy Minister Franklin Khan, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Allyson West and National Gas Company president Mark Loquan.

The BP team was led by chief executive upstream Bernard Looney and included Fitzpatrick, Global Upstream Regions chief operating officer William Lin, planning and commercial finance head Richard Eaton and corporate operations vice-president Giselle Thompson.

The 90-minute meeting was “informative and productive,” said a statement from the Office of the Prime Minister.

“The parties had a very frank and detailed conversation about BP's developmental plans for TT.”

Dr Rowley thanked BP for their co-operation with his Government in the energy sector.

The release said, “There were discussions around BP's recent drilling programmes and the future of LNG production in TT. BP also provided an update on their short and medium-term exploration and production gas programmes.”

BP updated Rowley and his delegation on the platform fabrication taking place for them at the Trinidad Offshore Fabricators (TOFCO) yard in La Brea.

“The parties concluded the meeting by reaffirming their commitment to the growth of the energy sector as they scheduled the continuation of negotiations between the empowered teams which are expected to begin in the middle of June in furtherance of specific objectives relating to the restructuring of Atlantic LNG, acceleration of field investigation, exploration, production as well as discussions surrounding a large number of E&P licenses,” the release added.

On Wednesday, Rowley’s team had visited the Shell Technology Centre in Amsterdam, Netherlands, to get an update on the latest projects and technology used by Shell, specifically in TT, to leverage improved returns in the energy sector, including seismic imaging utilising artificial intelligence.

"The Prime Minister visited several labs at the facility including the 3D Printing and Rock and Fluids Laboratory.”

Presentations were made by Yuri Sebregts, Shell's executive vice president for technology and Dr Dirk Smit, vice president for R&D exploration technology.