The Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago says two ongoing projects in the Caribbean oil producing nation are wells to watch in 2020 – BHP’s Broadside and Touchstone Exploration’s Chinook – both offshore Trinidad.
In a recent article, the Chamber said BHP’s deepwater campaign has thus far been successful, with several new discoveries in the northern deepwater blocks. It noted that the Bélé-1 and Tuk-1 wells were drilled in Block 23 last year in water depths of around 2,000 meters while the Hi-Hat-1 well was drilled in nearby block 14 in water depths of close to 1,800 meters.
“These three discoveries, east of Tobago, have established additional gas volumes around the Bongos discovery and BHP will continue their evaluation. Technical work is underway to assess further exploration targets and commercial options in what BHP is now calling the ‘Northern Gas play’,” the article said.
Citing BHP, the article noted that the Deepwater Invictus is currently drilling the Broadside well in their southern licenses as part of Phase 5 of the company’s deepwater drilling campaign. This well, which is located in TTDAA 3 off the east coast of Trinidad, will be the deepest well drilled in Trinidad and Tobago to date.
“Touchstone Exploration’s Chinook well is also of great interest. The Chinook location is in close proximity to the successful Cascadura well and offsets an abandoned legacy well which was drilled in 1959,” the Chamber said, adding that the original well encountered oil while drilling in samples and core, yet was never tested or completed. “Chinook-1 is expected to be drilled deeper than the original well and in a more seismically favourable position “with the hopes of unlocking significant oil and gas reservoirs on the prospect.”
The Chamber said Touchstone spudded Chinook on August 13th “so results are expected soon.” The Chinook-1 well is targeting hydrocarbon prospects in the Herrera formation at depths between 8,000 and 9,200 feet, the same geologic horizon that was targeted in the company’s successful Coho and Cascadura discoveries, the Chamber said.
The article quotes Paul Baay, CEO of Touchstone Exploration, as saying, “The spudding of the Chinook well marks the next phase of our Ortoire block exploration program that has already delivered two successful natural gas wells in just over a year. The Chinook well is being drilled in proximity to the original 1959 well and will further evaluate the turbidite concept eastward from the original Coho discovery. With the assistance of a 3D seismic survey, we are now expecting to move up structure to target the Herrera sands.”
The Chamber noted that the current poandemic has not had a huge impact in terms of project execution as was the case with many of the large oil and gas projects around the world that have experienced cancellations or significant postponements. In this regard, Trinidad and Tobago is not unlike Guyana – the newest player in the hemisphere – whose industry saw some delays but no derailment of major investment projects due to the pandemic.
