00:00At the signing ceremony for the production-sharing contract between Shell and the Energy Ministry
00:06in 2021 for the Manatee Field project, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said then that the
00:13Manatee side of the Lauren Manatee Field, which is in Trinidad and Tobago's territorial
00:18waters, has an estimated resource of 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
00:25On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, Shell PLC's Trinidad and Tobago subsidiary announced that it has
00:31taken the final investment decision on the Manatee project.
00:37In 2021, the Prime Minister said then that the Manatee Field, known as Subblock 6D, had
00:44an estimated operating and capital expenditure of US $1.8 billion.
00:51The production-sharing contract for Subblock 6D Manatee is for a period of 25 years.
00:59Preliminary estimates indicate that the natural gas production could start as early as 2025,
01:07with an initial production of up to 350 million standard cubic feet per day, before ramping
01:16up to as much as 700 million standard cubic feet per day.
01:23On Tuesday, Shell confirmed that Manatee, which is in the East Coast Marine Area in
01:28Trinidad and Tobago, is slated to start production in 2027.
01:34Shell said once online, Manatee is expected to reach peak production of approximately
01:39104,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 604 million standard cubic feet of gas
01:46per day.
01:48Trinidad and Tobago continues to suffer from a shortage of natural gas, which feeds the
01:53Atlantic LNG Facility in Point 14, which produces liquefied natural gas for export, and the
01:59industrial plants in Point Lisas that produce ammonia, methanol and other downstream gas
02:05products for export.
02:07Shell said on Tuesday that the Manatee Field will provide backfill for the Atlantic LNG
02:12Facility.
02:14In a statement on Tuesday, Energy Minister Stuart Young said this development will be
02:19the most significant hydrocarbon development in Trinidad and Tobago for the past couple
02:25decades.
02:26The Energy Minister also said it would not have happened were it not for what he described
02:31as the vision and leadership of the Prime Minister.
02:34The Energy Minister also said that he is personally grateful for being given the privilege and
02:40opportunity to negotiate the agreement with the Government of Venezuela to de-link Manatee
02:46from Loran, which is in Venezuela's waters.
02:49This occurred in 2019.
02:52Over two and a half years ago, Prime Minister Rauli said a suite of annual charges was payable
02:58within 10 days of the effective date of the contract signed in November of 2021, and thereafter
03:05within the first 10 days of the contract year.
03:08There is also a one-time technical bonus of US$200,000 to the Ministry, with an annual
03:18scholarship contribution of US$100,000 per annum, increasing at 6% per annum, and a signing
03:26bonus of US$15 million.
03:31The Energy Chamber said on Tuesday that the announcement by Shell is excellent news and
03:35added that the Manatee Field is projected to deliver significant volumes of natural
03:41gas equivalent to around 20% of current natural gas production.
03:47Jule Brown, TV6 News.
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