BHP Billiton awarded deepwater blocks off Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago announced that BHP Billiton and its partners have been awarded all four of the deepwater blocks approved by the Caribbean twin-island nation in its 2012 deepwater bid round.

According the country’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs BHP Billiton and its partners were awarded Blocks TTDAA 5, TTDAA 6, TTDAA 28, and TTDAA 29.

The four production-sharing contracts will see, in the first phase, at least six deepwater exploration wells drilled and 5,330 sq km of 3D seismic.

In winning Block TTDAA 5, BHP Billiton was able to stave off strong competition from several consortia including Repsol, Centrica, BG Trinidad & Tobago, Elenilto, State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic, Caspian Drilling Co., and Cairn Energy.

BHP Billiton already operates in Trinidad and Tobago in Angostura field where it found 300 million bbl of oil and 1.7 tcf of gas in what the company calls the Greater Angostura area off the island’s east coast.

Trinidad and Tobago also announced that no award was made for Block TTDA 1 as both bids submitted for that block did not met one or more of the required benchmarks established by the Technical Evaluation Committee of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs.

The bids were submitted by two consortia, BG T&T/Centrica and Elenilto/SOCAR/Caspian Drilling Co. Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs has said that its Technical Evaluation Committee estimated the possible gas reserves in these blocks at 2.4-23.6 tcf and possible oil reserves of 428–4,200 million bbl.

The deep waters around Trinidad and Tobago have never been explored and in the last year, the twin-island nation has awarded six blocks for exploration in the deep water, four to BHP Billiton and its partners and two to BP PLC.