CAPITAL: PORT OF SPAIN
MONETARY UNIT: DOLLAR
REFINING CAPACITY: 160,000 B/CD
OIL PRODUCTION: 119,600 B/D
OIL RESERVES: 686 MILLION BBL
GAS RESERVES:21.4 TCF

Trinidad and Tobago's large natural gas industry got even bigger in 2000 with discovery of the largest gas and condensate field yet in the country.

BP PLC said the first well in Red Mango field 35 miles east of Galeota Point indicated gas volumes of 3 tcf and 90 million bbl of condensate. BP was to begin appraising the discovery.

It was BP's second large discovery of the year, the first having been Manakin 1 on Block 5b some 135 miles east of Galeota Point. BP and Repsol Exploration Tobago SA said the Manakin structure straddles the sea border with Venezuela.

Manakin, in 730 ft of water, Trinidad's first deepwater discovery, contained about 2 tcf of gas. It encountered new gas reservoirs in addition to confirming shallow gas zones that Venezuela's Lagoven discovered in the 1983 Coquina 1 discovery. Manakin found seven hydrocarbon-bearing zones to TD 11,680 ft.

Early in 2000 BP agreed to a two-train expansion that would treble production at Atlantic LNG Co. to 9 million tonnes/year by 2003. The expansion's $7 billion (Trin.) made it the largest single investment in the Caribbean.

Another important discovery was the BHP Petroleum (Trinidad) Ltd. group's Aripo-1 find in 30 m of water 40 km off the northeast coast and 4 km northeast of the 1999 Angostura-1 discovery. Aripo flowed as much as 46.3 MMcfd of gas from a geologic section similar to that of Angostura.

Development drilling was to start in 2001 on British Gas Group fields in the North Coast Marine Area. Hibiscus, Poinsettia, and Chaconia fields were found in 1975. First gas was due in 2002.