CAPITAL: Port of Spain

MONETARY UNIT: Dollar

REFINING CAPACITY: 160,000 b/d

OIL PRODUCTION: 124,400 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 605 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 19.8 tcf

Liquefaction plant expansion talks were already well along as Trinidad & Tobago celebrated a milestone with loading of the first cargo of liquefied natural gas from Point Fortin.

Atlantic LNG Co. loaded the first cargo Apr. 19, 1999, from the Western Hemisphere`s first grassroots LNG project in more than 30 years. The 3 million tonne/year plant cost nearly $1 billion, largest single capital investment in the Caribbean Basin.

The US and Spain imported Atlantic LNG. Northeast Brazil might join them as a customer for gas from further trains. Accords for more sales to Spain were signed in 1999.

Fueling the plant was an enduring string of discoveries in the Atlantic off Trinidad`s southeastern coast. The discoveries continued, but the rate subsided in 1999. Four rigs ran most of the year, with only two active later on.

BP-Amoco`s southeast offshore fields feed the LNG plant`s first train. Both BG and BP-Amoco were to supply gas for expansion. BG`s gas from distant Dolphin field fuels local ammonia, methanol, and steel plants.

Atlantic LNG was discussing with the government a two-train expansion that would hike capacity to 7.2-8.1 million tonnes/year. Engineering was under way.

BG said it had 1.7 tcf of proved reserves and saw potential for 10 tcf on its eastern blocks and 4 tcf to the north.

National Gas Co. of Trinidad & Tobago Ltd. said that its investment in upstream and downstream sectors was $5 billion during 1996-99 and that the figure could double by 2001.

Negotiations began for a steel plant that would need 40 MW of gas-fired power and an aluminum smelter pulling 200 MMcfd. Nova Chemicals Corp. was in early talks to build an unspecified petrochemical facility, and other plants were being discussed.

BP-Amoco completed a 1.275 bcfd, 60-mile, 40-in. OD pipeline to Galeota Point from its Mahogany platform with subsea connections to Cassia and Amherstia fields and two other taps for future field development. NGC, with only 825 MMcfd capacity to Point Fortin, was expanding its onshore system and planned to lease capacity to BP-Amoco.

Another pipeline was to serve Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd.`s NGL plant at Point Lisas on the west coast. Owners in April completed a $155 million expansion of Point Lisas, which opened in June 1991.

The expansion hiked gas input capacity to 1.35 bcfd from 750 MMcfd and NGL production capacity to 33,500 b/d from 13,500 b/d. The company more than doubled NGL storage to 750,000 bbl and added a second port, a deepwater terminal, for exporting NGL.

The expansion was completed in only 14 months, 4 months ahead of schedule to take NGL from Atlantic LNG as soon as the liquefaction unit began operation.

The national oil company Petrotrin agreed to set up a $500 million joint venture, T&T North America, with private US investors to build a chain of truck stops in the southern US to which Petrotrin would supply gasoline and diesel from its Trinidad refinery.