Stakes juggled at Trinidad’s Atlantic LNG facility

Energy giants Shell and BP are changing their stakes in Trinidad and Tobago’s Atlantic LNG facility in a bid to return to full production, Reuters reported on Monday.

Under the current agreement, Shell and BP respectively own 54% and 40% shares of trains 2, 3 and 4, while local state-owned National Gas Company has 11.1% shares in train 4, but no stake in trains 2 and 3.

The new simplified deal will lower Shell’s stake to 45%, raise BP’s stake to 45%, with National Gas Company taking on the additional 10% stake in all trains.

Previously Chinese Investment Company owned 10% of train 1 but will no longer participate in the facility.

Sources confirmed that the changes in stake were in addition to changes in gas rights and capacity rights.

The Atlantic LNG facility has the capacity to produce up to 15 million tonnes per year of LNG. However, the first train has been idle since 2020 due to reduced gas supplies from Trinidad’s offshore plays.

While the facility only produced 8.2 million tonnes per year of LNG in 2022, this represented 15% of Shell’s global production and 18% of BP’s global production.

BP is currently Trinidad and Tobago’s largest gas producer, with an average production in 2022 of 1.2 billion bcf per day.

Shell is looking up gas production from its upcoming plays near Venezuela including 700 mcf per day expected from its Manatee offshore discovery by 2028 and 250 mcf per day expected from the Dragon field in 2026 that will be jointly exploited with the Venezuelan government.

Additionally, Reuters sources said that National Gas Company was in talks with Woodside Energy Group to source gas from its Calypso field that has estimated gas resources of 3.5 tcf.

No date has been given for the expected startup of production at the Calypso play.