SYDNEY, Sept 17 (Reuters) - BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc , Australia's
largest oil and gas producer, said on Wednesday it has committed funding for a
second phase of development at the Greater Angostura field in Trinidad and
Tobago.
The project partners will spend about $400 million to construct and install
a new gas export platform alongside the existing facilities. BHP's share of the
costs will be $180 million.
The facility is expected to be online during the first half of 2011 and has
a design capacity of 280 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas per day, BHP said in a
statement.
BHP said the project partners have already signed a sales agreement with the
National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, which will purchase all the gas
from the second-phase development.
BHP has a 45 percent stake in the field. Partners Total SA and
Talisman Energy Inc have 30 percent and 25 percent respectively.
The Angostura oil and gas field has been in production since 2005 and has a
production capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil a day.
The bulk of the gas produced under the first-phase development is being
re-injected into the Angostura reservoirs to support oil production from the
field.
BHP produced 116 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2007 and said in April
that it was on track to increase petroleum output by 10 percent in 2008, buoyed
by the start-up of the new projects off Australia's northwest coast and ventures
in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
(Reporting by Fayen Wong)
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