SHELL Trinidad and Tobago has announced its final investment decision on the Manatee field, which straddles the border between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.
Shell plans to bring production online by 2027.
A media release from Shell on July 9 said the project will involve an installation platform with eight development wells. The platform will be connected to a 110-km-long pipeline to the Shell-operated Beachfield gas processing facility. This will then be taken to the Atlantic LNG facility and to NGC for production for the domestic gas market.
Shell said Manatee will allow Shell to grow its integrated gas business by building on developments in the East Coast Marine Area (ECMA) off the southeast coast of Trinidad. The ECMA is currently home
to Shell’s largest gas-producing fields, including the Dolphin, Starfish, Bounty and Endeavour.
Manatee will also provide backfill for the country’s Atlantic LNG facility. The release noted that increasing utilisation at existing LNG plants is important to maximising potential for the company’s existing assets.
Shell plans to grow its LNG business by 20-30 per cent by the year 2030, as compared to 2022. The company also plans to grow liquefaction volumes by 25-30 per cent.
The Loran-Manatee field was discovered in 1983, about 100 km off the east coeast of Trinidad
The field is at an average water depth of 105 metres/340 feet. The Loran field represents the portion of the field in Venezuelan waters and the Manatee represents the portion of the field in Trinidad and Tobago waters.
The Loran-Manatee field has an estimated 10.04 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas, with the Manatee field having more than 2.7 tcf. Manatee is expected to reach peak production of approximately 104,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
In 2007 Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela signed a framework treaty covering all cross-border fields. In 2010 Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela signed a unitisation agreement which specifically covered production from the Loran-Manatee field, but in 2019 the two countries terminated the agreement amid significant sanctions laid on Venezuela by the US government.
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