Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 14 2021

LatAmOil TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO LatAmOil

NGC confirmed that the negotiations had not that were too high.
succeeded in a statement last week. “Regrettably, For its part, NGC has defended its negoti-
and despite NGC’s best efforts, no agreement ating position. “The government and NGC are
was reached with MHTL on the terms for the mandated to act in the best commercial and
continued supply of gas,” it said. It added that it financial interests of the people of [Trinidad and
would “continue to exert all reasonable efforts to Tobago]. Therefore, all actions by the company
try to secure a mutually acceptable agreement shall be consistent with this mandate,” it said in
with MHTL.” its statement.
After the talks ground to a halt, NGC sus- It did not divulge any specific details of the
pended gas deliveries under one of its two con- talks, explaining: “Contractual discussions are
tracts with MHTL. It also pledged to continue subject to the strictest confidentiality, and NGC
shipments under the other contract, which is is precluded from making further statements.”
still valid. Nevertheless, MHTL has had to idle The suspension of operations at M4 and M5
its M4 and M5 methanol plants, both of which brings the number of idle petrochemical plants
lie within the Point Lisas industrial park. in Trinidad and Tobago up to five.
MHTL has reportedly identified pricing The other facilities in question are Titan,
as the sticking point in the talks. According to owned by Canada’s Methanex; Yara, owned by
internal company documents cited by TT News- a local company also known as Yara; and M1,
day, it has said that NGC had proposed prices owned by MHTL. ™

COLOMBIA
ANH gives provisional approval

to Platero pilot fracking project

COLOMBIA has taken another step towards the ANH has been discussing proposals for pilot
development of its unconventional hydrocar- fracking schemes for some time. Its consider-
bon resources, via the government’s decision to ation of this drilling technique has drawn no
grant provisional approval to the Platero inves- small amount of criticism, as local opponents of
tigative project. fracking argue that the practice will be bad for
According to Reuters, the South Ameri- the environment.
can country’s National Hydrocarbons Agency Some energy experts, by contrast, have said
(ANH) announced its decision last week. With that the introduction of fracking could triple the
this hurdle cleared, US-based ExxonMobil is size of Colombia’s oil and gas reserves. This is
now on track to sign a contract for the project an important consideration, as the country has
on April 8, a spokeswoman for the agency told not been discovering enough oil and gas to make
the news service. up for the depletion of its conventional reserves.
Todd Spitler, a spokesman for the US For its part, the Colombian Petroleum Asso-
super-major, confirmed that his company had ciation, known locally as ACP, has suggested
been informed of ANH’s move to grant provi- that unconventional development projects
sional approval to the Platero scheme. “We are could boost the country’s oil production by as
pleased with the agency’s evaluation,” he told much as 450,000 barrels per day (bpd). Allow-
Reuters by email. ing fracking might also attract $5bn in annual
ExxonMobil submitted its proposal to ANH investment, the industry group said last year. ™
last month. The agency was due to wrap up its
evaluation by March 29.
The US company has not revealed full details
of its plan for Platero, which will involve the
application of hydraulic fracturing (fracking)
techniques to fields in the Valle Medio del Mag-
dalena basin. ANH officials have estimated the
value of the deal at $53mn.
ExxonMobil will be the second company to
undertake a pilot fracking project in Colombia,
following state-owned Ecopetrol. The national
oil company (NOC) unveiled plans for using
this technique at Kalé, another section of Valle
Medio del Magdalena, late last year. Pilot fracking projects have drawn criticism in Colombia (Photo: Opsur)

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