Trinidad and Tobago has about 10 years of gas production left based on less than 12 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas reserves, Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Stuart Young said during a May 29 live press conference.
“We currently utilize about one trillion cubic feet of gas. So, when we did the projections, if we just stay with that, that will be about another 10 years of life as we currently do with our gas production. Fortunately, behind that, cumulatively, there’s about another 10 tcf, which, if found, explored, and can be made commercial, would provide an extension of our energy sector,” the Minister told reporters.
The figures are the results of non-associated gas audits conducted by the petroleum consulting firm, DeGolyer and MacNaughton.
The report states that Trinidad and Tobago’s unrisked technically recoverable quantities of proven (P1) and contingent (C1) gas were estimated at 11.498 tcf as of a 2022 audit.
Stuart reminded that Trinidad and Tobago is a mature province. “We are at a stage in our exploration and production where we have been exploring and producing oil for over 100 years. We’ve been utilizing gas, which our economy is really based on, the gas sector, for over four decades, going on to five decades,” Stuart explained.
However, Trinidad’s annual gas output has dropped from 1.479 tcf in 2012, to 0.988 tcf in 2022. The government has been working to promote partnerships with Venezuela for joint gas development, in hopes that this will partially reverse the gradual decline in Trinidad’s output.
Meanwhile, substantial gas reserves have been discovered offshore Guyana and Suriname. ExxonMobil’s latest public estimate of its Stabroek Block gas reserves is 17 trillion cubic feet. As for Suriname, Wood Mackenzie recently estimated that 12.5 trillion cubic feet of gas has been discovered there. For these two countries that only recently discovered this resource offshore, gas development is on the horizon.
