Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 28 2021

LatAmOil TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO LatAmOil

By 2024, it said, Trinidad and Tobago will be overall additional production from future
producing more than 3.4bn cubic feet (96.28mn fields. However, [they] will barely compensate
cubic metres) per day of gas. for the declining production from mature fields,
The consultancy stressed, though, that yields causing the country’s overall gas production to
were likely to start dropping after 2024. If no decline after 2024.”
new assets are brought on stream, it said, pro- Doh also pointed out that plans for explo-
duction is set to decline by 3% year on year to ration of new fields in the deepwater section of
reach 3.2 bcf (90.62 mcm) per day in 2025. Trinidad and Tobago’s offshore zone had been
Svetlana Doh, an upstream oil and gas ana- thrown off schedule by the unexpected death of
lyst at GlobalData, explained that new assets Franklin Khan, the country’s energy minister,
would support gas output, but only in the short earlier this year. This development led Port of
term. “There are 10 planned or announced pro- Spain to postpone this year’s deepwater bidding
jects expected to come online between 2020 and round, and more delays are likely, she said. This
2024, which will gradually supply 150 mmcf is significant, since the government hopes that
[4.25 mcm] per day of natural gas in 2021 and the blocks included in the auctions will support
almost 1.1 bcf [31.15 mcm] per day in 2025,” she gas production levels, she stated.
said. “The largest production growth is coming “Ultimately, continued investment will be
from [the] offshore Colibri and Matapal fields, needed in new exploration drilling, in order not
operated by Royal Dutch Shell and BP respec- only to keep production growing but constant,”
tively. Both assets account for almost 43% of she commented. ™

COLOMBIA
Colombia hopes new law will promote

investment in hydrogen, alternative energy

COLOMBIA’S government has signalled that production – 0.3%, Duque said at the signing
it will promote investment in renewable energy ceremony. He noted, though, that the figure was
and hydrogen production with the adoption of slated to rise to at least 14% over the next few
a new energy transition law. years.
President Ivan Duque signed the law earlier Some of the new renewable generating facil-
this week at a ceremony held at El Carmelo, a ities may be built by the national oil company
9.8-MW solar park built by Celsia, an ener- (NOC) Ecopetrol. The NOC is looking to buy
gy-focused affiliate of Colombia’s Grupo Argos. a majority stake in Interconexion Electrica SA
According to Argus Media, the bill establishes a (ISA), Colombia’s electricity transmission sys-
legal framework for the operation of geothermal tem operator (TSO), and recently secured an
plants and other renewable energy facilities, as extension of its exclusive right to negotiate for
well as carbon capture and storage (CCS) pro- the stake. Felipe Bayon, the CEO of Ecopetrol,
jects and improvements in energy efficiency. has said he sees the acquisition as part of a wider
It also designates blue and green hydrogen effort to diversify the NOC’s asset portfolio away
as forms of renewable energy and therefore eli- from fossil fuels. ™
gible for certain tax breaks. These include accel-
erated depreciation, tariff exemptions and lower
income tax and value-added tax (VAT) rates,
Argus Media said.
The new law appears to be designed primar-
ily to promote investment in solar, wind and
geothermal projects. It does not devote much
attention to hydropower, probably because it
has already built hydroelectric power plants
(HPPs) with a combined generating capacity of
11,726 MW. These facilities account for about
70% of Colombia’s total installed capacity and
electricity production, and fossil fuel-burning
thermal power plants (TPPs) make up most of
the remaining 30%.
Meanwhile, solar, wind and geothermal
plants account for only a small share of current The law designates blue and green hydrogen as renewable fuels (Image: EurActiv)

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 28 15•July•2021