Trinidad & Tobago discovers an additional 40 million barrels of oil

Spain’s Repsol has discovered an oil reserve estimated at 40 million barrels of oil equivalent in the waters off the island-nations of Trinidad & Tobago, to the west of the island of Trinidad, the company said in a statement late last week.

The reserve has produced 1,200 barrels of high quality oil in tests and is ready for commercial production, the oil major said.

Repsol has been exploring in Trinidad & Tobago for nearly 20 years. It has rights on 7 offshore sites in the region. The company’s oil reserves around the islands totalled 325.3 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2013.

The drilling programs in Trinidad & Tobago have been benefitted by fiscal reforms implemented by the Persaud-Bissessar administration in the last few years to incentivise exploration and production in mature fields. This has resulted in increased rig activity, additional production and new reserves. Repsol and its partners including Petroleum Company of Trinidad & Tobago (PETROTRIN) and The National Gas Company of Trinidad & Tobago (NGC) continue to work in the area, expecting to complete at least two more wells during the current year, with further drilling scheduled for the following years.