Page 7 - LatAmOil Week 36 2022

LatAmOil TRINIDAD & TOBAGO LatAmOil

The company is slated to use the Joe Douglas for resources in the Columbus Basin. These smaller
a two-phase drilling campaign, it noted. pools are close to our existing infrastructure,
In the first phase of the campaign, the BP which means we can bring gas online quickly.
subsidiary is scheduled to drill three develop- This will help deliver the secure, affordable and
ment wells at the Mango field and then move lower carbon energy that the world needs.” ™
the rig to the Savonette field, where it will sink
one more well. It expects to complete all four
of these wells in late 2022 and 2023, and if the
drilling projects are successful, it will be able to
connect the new wells to existing production
platforms at the Mango and Savonette fields
shortly thereafter.
The second phase of the drilling campaign
envisions the drilling of three more develop-
ment wells at the Angelin field, bpTT said. It
stressed, though, that plans for this phase were
still under discussion and had not been officially
sanctioned.
The drilling programme calls for sinking
both exploration and development wells off-
shore Trinidad with the Joe Douglas rig, bpTT
said. It stated that its goal was to continue find-
ing and developing “small pools of resources”
within the Columbus basin.
Claire Fitzpatrick, regional president of
bpTT, commented: “We are excited to welcome
back the Joe Douglas drilling rig to bpTT. This
rig signals the resumption of our small pools
(infill) drilling programme. This drilling pro-
gramme is aimed at getting after smaller pools of Joe Douglas jack-up rig (Photo: BP)

VENEZUEL A
Chevron asks US government to expand

scope of Venezuelan sanctions exemption

THE US major Chevron has asked Washing- the production of a lighter blend for export by
ton to expand the scope of its exemption from Petropiar, one of Chevron’s joint venture with
sanctions barring investment in Venezuela’s oil PdVSA, they added.
industry, sources with knowledge of the matter Meanwhile, another source noted that the US
told Reuters last week. major wanted to be able to influence procure-
According to the sources, Chevron is seek- ment and personnel decisions. “Chevron wants
ing permission to resume trading in Venezue- to have more influence on the ventures’ procure-
lan crude, restart production at the Venezuelan ment, staff hiring and oil trading,” he said.
fields in which it has equity stakes and take a Currently, he added, all such decisions are
more active role in its joint ventures with Ven- being made by the Venezuelan NOC. “From
ezuela’s national oil company (NOC) PdVSA. PdVSA’s point of view, the projects will continue
The company is eager to revive all four of its joint being its business units, so it will appoint their
ventures with PdVSA, they added. managers,” he remarked.
Expanding the exemption would allow activ- Reuters’ sources indicated that PdVSA had
ities such as the resumption of production oper- agreed to hand over some of its control to Chev-
ations at Petroboscan, a Chevron/PdVSA joint ron, even though it did not intend to surrender
venture that recently suspended development any equity in the joint ventures to its US partner
in response to operational bottlenecks, two of in the short term. This is in line with remarks
the sources said. It would also permit swapping made by Venezuelan Oil Minister Tareck El
Venezuelan oil for diluent – that is, a lighter Aissami, who said last week that “the ball is
hydrocarbon stream – that could be mixed on the US government’s court” with respect to
with locally produced heavy crude to facilitate Caracas’ ongoing talks with Chevron.

Week 36 08•September•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7