Petrotrin restarts production from Southwest Soldado field

Trinidad and Tobago’s Petrotrin LLC has reported it will restart production from its Southwest Soldado field, adding 6,000 b/d of oil to its production.

The field has been dormant for 25 years and has not been produced due to poor infrastructure. The field is in shallow water off the Caribbean twin-island nation’s southwest coast and is just 6 miles from Venezuela. It is thought to contain 43 million bbl of proved reserves.

The reactivation project comprises three phases. In the first phase, the company will install a temporary facility and design a permanent facility for production in Southwest Soldado. The company also will drill 8 wells, reactivate other wells, and install a gas sales line. Petrotrin said it has already installed a temporary floating production facility, refurbished 23 structures, and drilled 4 wells.

In Phase 2, Petrotrin aims to scale-up facilities and infrastructure while engaging in sustained drilling and workovers. The company also will replace and upgrade the existing bulk line. The third and final phase will involve the maintenance of peak production by drilling and workovers.

Pres. Khalid Hassanali told OGJ that Petrotrin already has started to ramp up production, and that he expects this will continue in 2015.

“We are already in Southwest Soldado. Our production is in the vicinity of 2,500 b/d of oil. So we are already getting some oil out of it and by the second quarter next year we will have at least doubled that.”

Petrotrin’s daily production is 48,000 bo/d and it has so far spent $100 million on the project.