BG, Centrica, Voyager Bid for Exploration Blocks Off Trinidad and Tobago

BG Group Plc, Centrica Plc and Voyager Energy Ltd. bid for shallow water fields off Trinidad and Tobago, which is seeking to boost oil and gas reserves to maintain energy supplies.

BG bid for Block 5 (d), Centrica bid for NCMA 4 and Voyager, a unit of Niko Resources Ltd., bid for Block 4 (b) and NCMA 3, Helena Inniss, director of resource management at the Energy Ministry, said in an e-mail.

Voyager together with RWE AG also bid for NCMA 2, while Gulf Central Ltd. bid for North Marine Block, she said in the message sent late night yesterday.

The bidding for shallow water licenses closed on Sept. 8. The same day, the government launched a deepwater round for 11 blocks with a deadline on Jan. 18, Inniss said.

Trinidad and Tobago, where BP Plc is the biggest producer, needs to offer areas for exploration to ensure it has enough reserves to maintain oil and gas production beyond 2028, Robert Riley, the chief executive officer at BP Trinidad and Tobago, said March 25.

The deepwater tender comes after President Barack Obama halted deepwater drilling in U.S. waters through November, following the April explosion on the BP-operated rig that killed 11 people and spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eduard Gismatullin in London at egismatullin@bloomberg.net