bpTT brings Matapal field on stream ahead of schedule

BP Trinidad and Tobago (bpTT), a subsidiary of BP (UK), revealed on September 20 that it had begun extracting natural gas from the Matapal field offshore Trinidad and Tobago.

In a statement, bpTT said it had succeeded in bringing Matapal on stream seven months ahead of schedule, despite the challenges posed by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The field is now ramping up to its initial production rate of 250-350mn cubic feet (7.08-9.91mn cubic metres) per day of gas, it reported.

The company will be delivering gas from Matapal to the domestic market, the statement noted. “Gas from this project will be pooled with production from other [bpTT] fields to be used as feedstock for the country’s ammonia, methanol and LNG plants, as well as for power generation,” it said.

Presumably some of the gas from the new site will be delivered to the Atlantic LNG plant, which is located in Point Fortin on the island of Trinidad. The BP subsidiary has a stake in each of the facility’s four production trains and is currently the largest supplier of gas to the plant. It has been seeking additional supplies of gas for the facility since 2019, when it announced that it could not maintain deliveries at the level of 500 mmcf (14.2 mcm) per day because its infill drilling project was delivering disappointing results.

The Matapal field is located 80 km off the south-eastern coast of Trinidad in 63-metre-deep water, near bpTT’s Juniper field. The company has drilled three development wells there and has linked them to the Juniper platform via subsea tie-backs. These connections are “helping to minimise development costs and the associated carbon footprint” of the project, the statement said.

Claire Fitzpatrick, the president of bpTT, described the beginning of development operations at Matapal as an accomplishment. “Natural gas will play an important role in the energy transition and to the economy of Trinidad and Tobago for decades to come,” she commented. “This is why our team at bpTT has worked diligently to safely start up our Matapal project, which we successfully achieved both under budget and ahead of schedule. We are committed to a strong energy future in Trinidad and Tobago, and this project plays a critical role in delivering that.”