Shell has licensed contractor McDermott International to start out engineering work on its Manatee fuel discipline growth challenge off Trinidad and Tobago’s east coast, the contractor disclosed on Tuesday.
Trinidad is Latin America’s largest LNG exporter, however its flagship Atlantic LNG challenge and its petrochemical crops have been working at decreased capability on account of a scarcity of pure fuel.
McDermott stated it received the inexperienced gentle to proceed on an engineering, procurement, development and set up (EPCI) contract pending an funding resolution. Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Minister Stuart Young stated he expects Shell to quickly approve the challenge.
“I expect in a very short time frame I will hear about a final investment decision (FID) from Shell on Manatee,” Young advised the nation’s Parliament.
A Shell spokesperson stated the challenge is progressing and the corporate expects to achieve FID subsequent yr.
Manatee is predicted as quickly as 2028 to supply 700 million cubic toes per day to assist ease the nation’s fuel shortfall. Manatee is a part of the cross-border Loran-Manatee discovery, shared by Trinidad and Venezuela.
The discipline holds some 10 trillion cubic toes (tcf) of pure fuel, with 7.3 tcf on Venezuela’s facet and the remaining 2.7 tcf on Trinidad’s facet.
The international locations negotiated for years to collectively develop the reservoir and signed preliminary agreements, however the U.S. imposed sanctions in 2019 on Venezuela’s vitality business, stalling the ultimate deal.
This yr, Shell submitted, and the federal government of Trinidad and Tobago accepted, the sector growth plan that requires peak manufacturing of 700 million cubic toes per day (mcfd) of fuel.
“This award follows our successful delivery of the front-end engineering design for the Manatee gas field,” stated Mahesh Swaminathan, senior vice chairman, subsea and floating services at McDermott.
(Reuters – Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston; Editing by Josie Kao)
