Barbados is exploring options to extract reserves of natural gas in local wells, some of which are out of production.
Officials who were in the Well of the House of Assembly when the Estimates debate continued recently, said this was an attempt to boost local production which had fallen to about 30 per cent of overall consumption.
“So many of the wells that we have today have left back a significant portion of gas resources due to that priority back in the day because of the economics of producing oil as opposed to gas,” said Jamar White, Director of Natural Resources in the Ministry of Energy.
He said there was significant potential for this initiative adding that the Ministry had identified partners to determine how best to get it out of the ground through enhanced recovery techniques.
White was responding to a question from Senior Minister Dr William Duguid, a former chairman of the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC) who asked about local production.
Earlier, Minister of Energy Senator Lisa Cummins said Barbados had between 254 and 257 wells, noting only about 55 of them remained in production.
She said there was a programme to conduct an assessment on their status and how to retire them.
Chief executive officer of the Barbados National Oil Company Ltd, James Browne, said the country had invested a lot of money in the wells and the use of different recovery techniques.
“We’re going to undertake a programme where we will look to maximise the productivity from the wells, to increase the primary recovery from the ten per cent. We’ll try to use different techniques, whether it’s nitrogen or CO2 (carbon dioxide), where we try to displace the natural gas that’s in place and try to recover some of the gas that’s in place,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the demand for natural gas remains very high and the NPC will seek every opportunity to expand the grid, while maintaining and improving on the infrastructure.
Accountant at the NPC, Ian Bradshaw told the House expansion was limited by prohibitive costs, but with Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley identifying natural gas as the bridging fuel, it was important to maintain the current infrastructure.
“We were the beneficiary of funding from the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), and that allowed NPC to complete over 10.4 kilometres of mains replacement and that is important as we try to change as much of the steel and cast iron infrastructure that we currently have,” Bradshaw told the senior minister who asked about NPC grid expansion.
“We still have at least 13 per cent of the 350 mains that traverse the island . . . being steel and cast iron and we are strategically looking to replace that as is required by industry standards. So we’ve been forced to balance the mains replacement and maintenance.”
Bradshaw said by collaborating with private contractors and state-owned entities, they looked for ways to expand the grid in places such as White Park Road, St Michael; Red Hill, St Philip; and Mose Bottom, St Andrew.
“Wherever they were creating new housing opportunities, we took the opportunity to work with them to provide the service to as many businesses and residents of Barbados.”
Cummins said the NPC completed a mapping of the country so this expansion could be undertaken and as the service was provided to businesses, those within the vicinity were also brought onto the grid.
The minister pointed to My Lord’s Hill, St Michael; communities near the Wyndham Sam Lord’s Castle in St Philip and some in Christ Church which were brought on.
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