Energy Minister: Cocuina deal 'historic'

MINISTER of Energy Stuart Young has labelled the licence granted to Trinidad and Tobago by Venezuela for the exploration and production of natural gas from the Cocuina part of the Manakin-Cocuina field as "historic."

He posted a statement on his social media pages on July 25.

The Energy Minister had just returned from Venezuela after signing a number of agreements which will see the National Gas Company of TT (NGC) and bpTT jointly operating the field.

"This achievement is unprecedented and has never been done in TT and Venezuela before for a cross-border hydrocarbon field," Young said.

"It is another significant achievement for the people of TT and Venezuela."

News of the granting of the licence broke on Wednesday, as the Energy Chamber's Energy Now publication revealed that NGC and bpTT would have a 20-year licence to operate the Venezuelan side of the field.

On Wednesday, Venezuelan oil minister Pedro Tellechea said 25 per cent of the production would go to TT’s petrochemical sector, while the rest will feed TT’s LNG industry.

The Manakin field, in TT waters, is already licensed to bpTT.

PM: Manakin-Cocuina deal sets template

At a post-Cabinet press conference at the Diplomatic Centre in Port of Spain, the Prime Minister noted that because of revenue garnered from TT's natural gas industries, the nation enjoys significant privileges that, should this revenue be reduced, TT would not be able to access.

Dr Rowley pointed to social programmes, on which Government spends around $5.5 billion, then he pointed to the removal of income tax for people who earn $7,000 a month.

"Just look to see where the Government spends money and that would be at risk in the event that the income is not there," he said.

He added that, when government looked at natural-gas reserves, it found the country had ten- 12 years' proven resources. The mature reserves prompted the government to seek natural-gas resources from outside TT's borders.

The closest neighbour with gas reserves is Venezuela. Rowley said, despite political turmoil, TT had spent the past 15 years developing relationships with Venezuela which culminated in the award of the licence.

Rowley said Venezuela was not the only country with which the Government had sought deals:  memoranda of understanding have been signed with Grenada, Guyana and Suriname.

"Eventually we may be in a position to access gas outside of Venezuela, and having set the template with Loran/Manatee and now Cocuina/Manakin, we may be able to access other sources in eastern Venezuela, which are to be properly explored."

bpTT president: Licence an important milestone

BpTT president David Campbell said the award of the licence was an important milestone for the nation and bpTT, in a statement on Thursday.

"It will allow us to move forward with our planning for the development of these significant discovered resources as we work towards bringing more gas into TT’s existing gas infrastructure in this decade," Campbell said.

He commended the Government for its diplomatic efforts and leadership in driving strong collaboration between bp, NGC and the governments of TT and Venezuela.

The Energy Chamber, in a separate statement, congratulated the stakeholders on the completion of the negotiations.

"Once developed, this cross-border field can provide significant volumes of natural gas to the LNG and petrochemical sectors in TT and help extend the life of our gas industry and create business opportunities and jobs for our citizens.”

Cocuina field is about 100 km to the southeast of Galeota Point, but 30 km from bpTT’s Juniper platform. It has pipelines which tie back to bp’s network of pipelines, which goes directly to production plants. The field contains an estimated one trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In the Manakin/Cocuina field, 66 per cent of the discovered gas is on the Manakin side in TT, and 34 per cent is in the Cocuina field, in Venezuela

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) granted the government a specific licence for the development of the field on May 28. Bp will hold 80 per cent equity in the field and NGC  20 per cent.