Manatee field one step closer to final decision
2023, 11/29
NGC president Mark Loquan and Eugene Okpere, former senior vice president and country chair of Shell T&T signed the amended gas sales contract between the two companies for the Manatee natural gas field in September.
Minister of Energy Stuart Young, and Adam Lowmass, Shell’s current senior vice president and country chair witnessed the ceremony.
American engineering company McDermott has received a contract from Shell Trinidad and Tobago for the Manatee gas field development project.
The company said it received limited notice to proceed with an engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract to do work on the field located off the east coast of T&T.
Subject to Shell taking a final investment decision, the Manatee project scope is for the design, procurement, fabrication, transportation, installation, and commissioning of a wellhead platform, offshore and onshore gas pipelines.
“This award follows our successful delivery of the front-end engineering design for the Manatee gas field,” said Mahesh Swaminathan, McDermott’s senior vice president, Subsea and Floating Facilities.
“It is testament to McDermott’s integrated EPCI capabilities built over the last 100 years around the world including many successful projects in Trinidad and Tobago. We will again deliver for Shell, building on a partnership marked by trust, collaboration, and shared success, to execute this important project.”
The Manatee field is a conventional gas development and once commissioned, gas will supply both domestic and export markets from Trinidad and Tobago.
The Manatee field is part of the cross-border Loran-Manatee discovery, shared by Trinidad and Venezuela. The field is believed to hold around 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas, with 7.3 Tcf on Venezuela’s side and the remaining 2.7 Tcf on Trinidad’s side.
In 2019, the T&T Government and Venezuela executed an agreement to allow each country to independently develop its share of hydrocarbon resources from the Loran-Manatee gas field. The gas field straddles the maritime border between T&T and Venezuela.
The National Gas Company (NGC) and Shell signed an amended domestic gas sales contract to incorporate a share of the natural gas volumes from the Shell-operated Manatee field, once the project is sanctioned.