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Trinidad and Tobago reports progress

in talks on Atlantic LNG restructuring

PROJECTS & TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Ministry of Energy other stakeholders had signed this document.
COMPANIES and Energy Industries revealed earlier this week However, it noted that China Investment Corp.
that it was moving closer to a deal on the restruc- (CIC), which has a stake in the plant’s first
turing of Atlantic LNG, a four-train gas liquefac- production train, had been talking to the gov-
tion plant and export terminal in Point Fortin. ernment and other shareholders about restruc-
In a statement dated January 24, the ministry turing, even though it was not taking an active Atlantic LNG is
said it had joined with National Gas Co. of Trin- role in that process.
idad and Tobago Ltd (NGC) in signing a heads The parties have been in talks on the fate of unusual, in that
of agreement (HoA) with the two largest share- Atlantic LNG since 2018, owing to concerns
holders in Atlantic LNG – namely, affiliates of BP about falling production. Those concerns grew it is not owned by
(UK) and Royal Dutch Shell (UK/Netherlands). more acute in 2019, after BP announced that
It noted that the parties had signed the docu- it could not maintain gas supplies to the lique- a single company
ment “after months of discussions and complex faction plant at the level of 500mn cubic feet or a consortium.
negotiations.” (14.16mn cubic metres) per day because its
With respect to the details of the HoA, the infill drilling project was yielding disappoint-
statement noted that Shell, BP and NGC had ing results. Since then, Atlantic LNG’s output
pledged to continue discussions on restructur- has declined even more, and its first production
ing, with the intent of completing and executing train suspended operations after a maintenance
an agreement by June 30, 2022. (It did not say programme for want of feedstock.
whether BP and Shell had resolved earlier dis- Atlantic LNG is unusual, in that it is not
putes over whether the final agreement would owned by a single company or a consortium.
involve a reorganisation of the shareholder Instead, it has four different sets of owners, or one
structure.) set for each of its four production trains. Train 1
Additionally, it reported that the BP and is owned 46% by Shell, 34% by BP (UK), 10%
Shell affiliates had signed a separate HoA out- by NGC and 10% by CIC. Meanwhile, Trains 2
lining their good-faith commitment to pursue and 3 are owned 57.5% by Shell and 42.5% by BP,
discussions on the restructuring of Atlantic while Train 4 is owned 51.11% by Shell, 37.78%
LNG. The ministry did not say whether any by BP and 11.11% by NGC.™

Week 04 28•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7