Positive outlook for Savonette
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago — Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine on Saturday, January 18, 2013 visited the Rowan XL II Jackup Rig and the bpTT Savonette Platform both located in bpTT’s acreage off the east coast of Trinidad. The Minister was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs (MEEA) Selwyn Lashley and the Chief Technical Officer of the MEEA Richard Jeremie. The President of bpTT Norman Christie also accompanied Minister Ramnarine together with other bpTT senior leaders.
On the Rowan XL II rig, Minister Ramnarine had an opportunity to see firsthand the drilling of the Savonette 7 well. It is expected that Savonette 6 will come onto production shortly and following completion of Savonette 7, the Savonette Platform is expected to have a production capacity of approximately 900 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per day. Savonette is one of five platforms built by bpTT in Trinidad and Tobago and commissioned in 2009. Minister Ramnarine reported that he was pleased to see the operations of Savonette 4, which is considered one of the highest-producing natural gas wells in the world.
The Minister was also pleased that bpTT had implemented the Ministry’s recommendations for management of these prolific natural gas producing wells, which were aimed at optimizing their production in a safe and sustainable manner. Savonette is expected to make a major contribution to the supply of natural gas to Trinidad and Tobago in 2014. The coming onto production of the Savonette wells in 2014 and other positive developments with other natural gas suppliers augurs well for the T&T economy in 2014. The projected growth rate of 2.5% as posited by the Central Bank is predicated on an increase in natural gas output in 2014 relative to 2013.