BP Starts Drilling at Trinidad's Matapal Field
BP has begun drilling work at the Matapal offshore gas field off Trinidad and Tobago, its local arm BPTT said on October 8, confirming that production was still on track to start in 2022.
Matapal lies 80 km off the southeast coast of Trinidad, in waters 163 m deep. It will comprise three wells tied back to BP's Juniper platform some 8 km west. It will produce 400mn ft3/day (4.13bn m3/year) of gas at full capacity, supplying the Trinidad market.
"Matapal is an important part of BPTT's portfolio to continue to underpin our existing gas contracts," the BP subsidiary's president Claire Fitzpatrick said.
BPTT operates 15 offshore platforms off Trinidad’s east coast, accounting for over half the country’s gas production. Some of this gas is supplied domestically and some of it is exported via the Atlantic LNG terminal. BPTT made its last discoveries in the area in 2017, when its Savannah and Macadamia wells struck 2 trillion ft3 of gas.
The Maersk Discoverer semi-submersible rig is undertaking drilling operations at Matapal, having arrived onsite in early September.
(picture courtesy of BP)