“Katie bar the door” :: Southcom Keeps Watch on Ebola Situation

By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2014 – The potential spread of Ebola into Central and Southern America is a real possibility, the commander of U.S. Southern Command told an audience at the National Defense University here yesterday.

“By the end of the year, there’s supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly said. “That’s horrific. And there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa.”

If it comes to the Western Hemisphere, many countries have little ability to deal with an outbreak of the disease, the general said.

“So, much like West Africa, it will rage for a period of time,” Kelly said.

This is a particularly possible scenario if the disease gets to Haiti or Central America, he said. If the disease gets to countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, it will cause a panic and people will flee the region, the general said.

“If it breaks out, it’s literally, ‘Katie bar the door,’ and there will be mass migration into the United States,” Kelly said. “They will run away from Ebola, or if they suspect they are infected, they will try to get to the United States for treatment.”

Also, transnational criminal networks smuggle people and those people can be carrying Ebola, the general said. Kelly spoke of visiting the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua with U.S. embassy personnel. At that time, a group of men “were waiting in line to pass into Nicaragua and then on their way north,” he recalled.

“The embassy person walked over and asked who they were and they told him they were from Liberia and they had been on the road about a week,” Kelly continued. “They met up with the network in Trinidad and now they were on their way to the United States — illegally, of course.”

Those men, he said, “could have made it to New York City and still be within the incubation period for Ebola.”

Kelly said his command is in close contact with U.S. Africa Command to see what works and what does not as it prepares for a possible outbreak in the area of operations.

Source

Bayfield Spuds Another Well Offshore Trinidad

Bayfield Energy, an independent oil and gas exploration and production group with key assets in Trinidad and Tobago, has announced the spud of the second well in its exploration and appraisal programme in the offshore Galeota Licence Area, designated EG7.

The well spudded on 4 April 2012 and is being drilled by the Rowan Gorilla III jack-up rig, following on from EG8, which was suspended as an oil and gas discovery in March following successful drilling results.

The well is located in 112 ft (34 m) of water and lies approximately 800m east of well EG1, which encountered oil in 1964. EG7 is planned to be drilled to a total depth of approximately 8,485 ft (2,586 m, measured depth below rotary table) and will be deviated to the south-east from the surface location to investigate the Lower Pliocene to Upper Miocene stacked shallow marine sandstone reservoirs encountered in the previous discovery wells EG1 (1964) and COS1 (1985).

As in well EG8, several primary exploration targets have been identified by direct hydrocarbon indicators highlighted through reprocessing of 3D seismic data acquired by Bayfield in 2010.

Following completion of EG7, as previously agreed the jack-up unit will revert to Bayfield’s alliance partner in the rig contract. This will allow time for Bayfield to integrate the results from EG7 and EG8 into its evaluation of the Galeota Licence, prior to proceeding with the next phase of drilling.

Bayfield is the operator of the Galeota Licence area holding a 65% interest, with Petrotrin holding the remaining 35%.

Source

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Trinidad to Offer Six Blocks in Deep Water Bid Round

Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs (MEEA) has announced that the 2012 Deep Water Competitive Bid Round is tentatively set to open on the 29th of March.

Leading up to the opening of the round, the MEEA will participate in road shows 21st – 24th of February at NAPE 2012 in Houston, 28th – 29th of February at Trinidad and Tobago Energy Trade Mission in the JW Marriot Houston, and the 8th of March at the MEEA delegation to the High Commission for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in London where the six selected deep water blocks nominated will be announced.

The six offshore blocks that are to be nominated and offered will come from locations in the East Coast Marine Area and Trinidad and Tobago Deep Atlantic Area (See Concession Map). This acreage offers a mix of water depths, hydrocarbon play-types and production potential.

Available Data

PGS, in conjunction with the MEEA, has acquired 6,766 km of marine MultiClient 2D data over approximately 43,000 sq. km of the Trinidad and Tobago offshore area.

PGS TOBAGO TROUGH MC2D 2008: 2,448 km of ultra-long offset, dual-sensor GeoStreamer 2D data located across 9 blocks in the West Tobago Sub-basin and Tobago Platform.

PGS DEEPWATER ECMA MC2D 2008: 1,966 km of ultra-long offset, dual-sensor GeoStreamer 2D data located across 26 blocks in the Barbados Accretionary Complex on the Trinidad and Tobago Deep Atlantic Area.

PGS NCMA-4&5 MC2D 2008: 2,352 km of high resolution 2D located across the Patao High across 2 blocks in the West Tobago Sub-basin and Southeast Tobago Sub-basin between the Tobago Platform and the Araya-Tobago metamorphic basement.

Source

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Trinidad expects $3 Bln in energy exploration in 2012

By Linda Hutchinson-Jafar

PORT OF SPAIN, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Upstream companies operating in Trinidad and Tobago will invest $3 billion in oil and gas exploration activities this year, Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said on Monday.

“2012 exploration drilling will spring to life after low to moderate activity,” he said at the opening session of the Trinidad and Tobago Energy conference.

Some 15 exploration wells will be drilled this year, mainly by Canada-based companies Parex Resources and Niko Resources and by BP, he said.

Five drilling rigs are currently operating in the country while six seismic programs were continuing or starting in 2012.

Trinidad and Tobago is highly dependent on the energy sector, which contributes close to 40 percent of GDP, 40 percent of revenues and is the largest source of foreign direct investment.

Updating the status of negotiations for deep water blocks in the Atlantic, Ramnarine said discussions have concluded with BP Trinidad and Tobago and he expects sign-off soon, while talks were continuing with BG Trinidad and Tobago and BHP Billiton for deep water acreage.

Ramnarine said the country’s continuing decline in oil production was a “most worrying aspect of the energy sector.”

Oil production, which averaged 92,000 barrels per day in 2011, was hampered by a plant shutdown at the state-owned oil company Petrotrin and by maintenance activity by other small oil producers.

“Any gains in government revenue that could be realized as a result of increased oil prices were negated by falling oil production. It’s hurting the national economy and the country at a time when we should be benefitting from high oil prices,” he told the energy conference.

Oil production has declined to 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from 145,000 bpd over the last 10 years.

Ramnarine said his ministry is preparing for a road show at the end of the month in Houston to meet with representatives from 200 oil and gas companies that have expressed interest in Trinidad and Tobago.

The ministry will also promote the next deep water bid round, which will be launched next month, he said.

Source

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Niko Spuds Stalin Well, Offshore Trinidad

Niko Resources LTD, an offshore exploration company with headquarters in Calgary, Canada, announced today that it has commenced drilling operations on its first well offshore Trinidad.

The Rowan Gorilla III rig is on location at the Stalin prospect, which is the first of three wells planned for Block 2ab located off Trinidad and Tobago’s eastern continental shelf. The Stalin-1 well is named after the popular calypso great, Black Stalin.

Niko is the operator of the block and has a 35.75% working interest. Partners in the well are Petrotrin with 35% and Centrica Plc with 29.25%. The well is being drilled in 100 feet of water to a total depth of 8800 feet and will test a large anticlinal feature made up of multiple thrust sheets. The reservoir targets are the Oligocene age Angostura sands which are producing in the Angostura field located approximately 23 miles east of the Stalin location.

Niko’s best estimate is a target of 600 to 800 million gross unrisked in-place barrels of oil equivalent.

Source

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Niko to Begin Drilling at Block 2ab Offshore Trinidad in September 2011

Canada’s Niko Resources and Britain’s Centrica will invest $70 million in three offshore exploration wells this year in Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean’s leading oil and natural gas producer, officials said on Wednesday.

The two companies, along with Trinidad and Tobago’s state-owned integrated energy company Petrotrin, are joint venture partners in an offshore region known as Block 2ab.

Ajith Muralidharan, a manager at Niko Resources, said drilling is scheduled to begin in September and that surveying so far had “shown prospects with substantial potential.”

The investment comes as Trinidad and Tobago seeks to lure investment and increase oil and natural gas output in its vital energy sector, which accounts for 45 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and 60 percent of its foreign exchange earnings.

Government statistics show oil production has fallen steadily over the last decade from 145,000 barrels a day to 100,000 bpd over the last 10 years.

Natural gas reserves declined from 22 trillion cubic feet (TCF) to just over 14.5 TCF during the same period.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad- Bachan welcomed the drilling plan as a sign exploration may be poised to pick up again after falling over the past two years largely because of high drilling costs and the onset of the global recession.

( Original Article )

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