Above: one of BP’s Trinidad platforms

By the Caribbean Journal staff

BP Trinidad and Tobago has approved a new offshore gas project called Juniper.

The project will include the construction of a “normally unmanned platform together with corresponding subsea infrastructure,” the company said in a release.

Work on the project is scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Juniper will take gas from Trinidad’s Corallita and Lantana fields, which are located about 50 miles off Trinidad’s southeastern coast.

Trinidad Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said the project would involve an investment of just over $2 billion USD.

The project will include five subsea wells and have a production capacity of about 590 million standard cubic feet per day.

The project will be BP’s 14th offshore production facility in Trinidad, with drilling slated to begin in 2015.

The company said the first gas from the facility was expected to come in 2017.

BP operates around 904,000 acres off of Trinidad’s eastern coast.

“The Juniper project will yield immediate and long term benefits for the people of the country by way of revenue generation and job creation,” Ramnarine said in a statement. “This is a very important project for the future of Trinidad and Tobago’s economy.”