(Trinidad Express) Woodside Energy last night confirmed that it had to shut in (close off) its offshore operations in the country as a precaution following an incident on Tuesday.
“On 25 July 2023, Woodside Energy shut in offshore production operations in Trinidad and Tobago as a precaution following a process safety incident,” a Woodside spokesperson stated yesterday following Express enquiries.
“All personnel are safe and accounted for. We are working to safely resume operations,” the energy group spokesperson stated.
Woodside’s confirmation came after the Energy Ministry had said that one of the country’s major upstream natural gas suppliers had to shut in its gas production to deal with an unplanned technical issue. “This unfortunate and untimely issue has led to a significant reduction in current gas supply which in turn has affected the end users of gas,” the Energy Ministry stated.
“This unforeseen event is being given the priority urgent attention that is necessary by the upstream entity. It is hoped that the situation will be resolved in the shortest possible timeframe,” it added.
On Thursday, Energy Minister Stuart Young met with Woodside’s acting president and country manager Kellyanne Lochan and its executive vice-president of international operations Shiva McMahon.
The Express has been told that as many as seven plants on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate have been temporarily shut down as a result of a shortage in the supply of natural gas.
In a statement last night, the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC) said while some plants were already down for maintenance, others have had to be taken offline due to this shut-in and reduced available volumes.
“NGC will continue to engage with both its suppliers and customers to minimise the impact of this development. It is hoped that the matter will be resolved in the shortest possible timeframe,” it stated.
The Energy Ministry’s announcement of the gas supply issue came after Member of Parliament for Pointe-a-Pierre David Lee called on the Energy Minister to say whether there was a crisis at Point Lisas.
“The Minister of Energy must tell the country if there is a looming gas crisis at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate yet again as reports have emerged that four critical downstream plants have shut down in the last few weeks due to a lack of natural gas,” Lee said.
Among the plants listed by Lee as being affected were Proman’s M2 and M3, as well as Tringen 1 and Nutrien 03 but this could not be independently confirmed yesterday.
Lee said it was “appalling” that three years after the massive shutdown of a record number of downstream plants at Point Lisas due to gas supply, another has occurred.
“The incident of gas supply at Point Lisas becomes even more troubling as only yesterday the Prime Minister admitted that the Venezuelan government had not accepted the terms for the Dragon Gas deal, validating our concerns that the Government should have focused on a more sustainable avenue for gas production as opposed to selling a dream with Dragon gas,” Lee stated.
