On September 6th 2023, a milestone was achieved in the ongoing effort to develop and monetise Trinidad and Tobago’s natural gas reserves. The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) received first gas from the Cascadura natural gas and liquids facility, located in the Ortoire block onshore Trinidad, and operated by Touchstone Exploration Inc. (80 percent operating working interest) and Heritage Petroleum Company Limited (20 percent working interest).

This milestone was doubly important for NGC as the company was responsible for construction of associated infrastructure that facilitated the tie-in of the Cascadura facility to the domestic network. The project entailed design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of 1.6-km, 20-inch buried natural gas pipeline with associated pig launcher and pig receiver stations at the ends of the pipeline, to tie the Cascadura wells into NGC’s existing 30-inch onshore natural gas transmission pipeline. This infrastructure has the capacity to take up to 220 MMscfd of dry natural gas from the Ortoire block.

Construction was initiated by NGC in September 2022 and completed in July 2023, followed by commissioning and start-up in September 2023. This project was planned and safely executed using NGC’s in-house teams, utilising 100% local content, and demonstrated NGC’s technical services capability, resilience and execution agility. The project was completed within its planned schedule and budget. Pursuant to a Gas Sales Contract signed with Touchstone in 2020, NGC will purchase gas produced from the Cascadura field to meet its domestic supply obligations.

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