BP's Cannonball project near completion

Offshore staff

(Trinidad Tobago)-BP's Trinidad & Tobago subsidiary BPTT has announced that it is nearing completion of its offshore Cannonball gas project after drilling the first three wells and commissioning the platform and topsides.

The startup date for the Cannonball project had been scheduled for the 4Q 2005 but was delayed due to problems with construction of the pipeline stretching between Cannonball and the Cassia processing hub on the mainland, a BPTT spokesperson said.

BPTT discovered several small indentations in a 600-ft section of the pipeline last November. After evaluating the pipeline, a specialist contractor began cutting out and replacing the damaged sections of the line in mid-December.

"We are now in the process of commissioning the pipeline and are moving to get gas flowing as soon as possible. Once the pipeline is operational, we expect to bring the field into supply gradually over a period of about a month," the spokesperson said.

"The expectation is that the wells will be high-rate gas producers and some of the biggest wells in BP's portfolio worldwide," the spokesperson said.

The project is designed to produce some 800 MMcf/d of gas, which will assist in meeting BPTT's gas supply commitments to Atlantic LNG's train 4. BPTT will be the largest supplier of gas to the train with a gas entitlement of about 300 MMcf/d.

Train 4 began liquefaction in mid December 2005 and has a capacity of some 5.2 million tons of LNG a year, requiring about 800 MMcf/d of gas supplies.

BP has a 37.78% stake in train 4 with other partners British Gas (28.89%), Spain's Repsol YPF (22.22%) and the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (11.11%).

03/09/2006