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http://www.guardian.co.tt/business-guardian/2011/11/10/expert-dr-krishna-persad-predicts-huge-oil-find-ten-years

Expert Dr Krishna Persad predicts: Huge oil find in ten years
Published: Thu, 2011-11-10 15:09


A prediction that over the next decade T&T will discover upwards of three billion barrels of recoverable reserves of crude oil, two billion of which will come from the deep water. The prediction comes from geological consultant, Dr Krishna Persad, who explained his findings on Tuesday to a meeting of the T&T Geological Society at the Normandie Hotel, St Ann’s, Tuesday. The findings are contained in Persad’s new book, Petroleum Geology and Geochemistry of T&T, which took him three years to write.

He said of the three billion in additional reserves to be discovered, 700 million will be found in areas that have already been explored, but where modern technology will lead to significant discoveries, and another 300 million barrels will be discovered in areas that are not well explored, like south coast marine area. The geological consultant, who is also a lecturer at the University of the West Indies, said his conclusions came after 40 years of research.

Persad believes there were at least two billion barrels of recoverable reserves of crude oil to be discovered in the deep water. He gathered information from offshore Ghana, the Guyana Suriname basin and the deep water in the Niger/Equatorial Guinea basin because they were all similar in geological history. In comparing the regions, Persad said he had found a striking similarity with T&T deep water and the Niger/Equatorial Guinea basin.

“We can see toe thrust faults penetrating into the deep cretaceous section, indicating access to the source. As a result, we expect to find oil off the east coast in the ultra deep areas and we may also find fractionated gas and condensate.” Persad said there is no doubt that the cretaceous rock is there in the ultra deep areas and that tests have shown the presence of hydrocarbons on the sea bed. The university lecturer also showed that in the last bid round the companies were very conservative by bidding on blocks that were within a known trend that had led to significant discoveries.

He said if you look closely, the blocks that were bid on were all along the Angostura trend where there was a major gas discovery of more than two trillion cubic feet of recoverable reserves and a thin oil play in the Oligocene sands. This must certainly be good news for the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs, which is in the process of negotiating with bpTT for the two deepwater blocks which were awarded to the company. It comes at a time when the ministry has been working hard to attract bidders for a future deepwater bid round.

Persad predicted that oil will be found in several parts of Trinidad where there has already been exploration. He cites as an example the Columbus Basin, in which many of the country’s massive oil and gas finds have been made. He said the gas and condensate fields should have thicker oil columns. Persad said an example of what is likely to play out in the next year is Bayfield Energy making discoveries in the southern part of the Galeota field.

Persad said there was no question that they would be successful and this will assist T&T in increasing its crude production. He argued that Petrotrin would be making discoveries in its onland acreage because of its 3d seismic, which the company acquired recently and is now studying. “We made these discoveries in the past using what would be considered now, crude methods. I am confident that there will be significant discoveries onland.”

He has also predicted discoveries in the north coast marine area, but noted that those discoveries are likely to have little or no associated liquids and will be dry gas.

ENERGY REPORTER