Commissioning was completed with the opening of a control valve, allowing natural gas from BHP Billiton’s Angostura Field, located off Trinidad’s northeast coast, to flow into National Gas Company’s (NGC’s) onshore natural gas transmission network.

The North-Eastern Offshore (NEO) Pipeline originates from BHP Billiton’s gas export platform, comes ashore at Mayaro, then continues on land to NGC’s Abysinnia complex. The project began in 2007, taking four years to complete at a cost of $US450 million dollars.

NGC President S. Andrew Mc Intosh said the pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.2 Bcf, will initially take 220 MMscf/d from BHP Billiton and include a tie-back to EOG Resources’ Toucan Platform, from which natural gas will be exported until December 2011.

Of major significance for the local energy sector is that the pipeline is the first line to be constructed from Block 2c off Trinidad’s northeast coast into the existing NGC pipeline network located off the southeast coast of Trinidad. Historically, the supply of offshore gas came only from fields located off the southeast coast. However, with the discovery and monetisation of fields in the northeast acreage, it was imperative that NGC develop an extensive marine pipeline network in that area.