- BP will acquire Woodside Energy’s 70% interest in Calypso, giving it complete ownership of the deepwater gas project.
- Trinidad’s government has estimated that Calypso could eventually supply 700 million cubic feet a day, although no final investment decision has been taken.
- The transaction shows BP concentrating capital around large resources connected to existing operations while selling mature or less competitive businesses elsewhere.
BP has agreed to acquire Woodside Energy’s controlling interest in the Calypso gas project off Trinidad and Tobago, consolidating ownership of one of the Caribbean country’s largest undeveloped resources.
Woodside will sell its 70% operated interest to BP, which already owns the remaining 30%. The consideration includes cash and contingent payments, although the companies have not disclosed their value. Completion is expected by the end of 2026, subject to government and regulatory approvals.
Calypso comprises several discoveries around 220 kilometres off Trinidad in water depths of approximately 2,100 metres. The resource is estimated to contain 3.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas and remains in the engineering and development-planning stage.
Woodside chief executive Liz Westcott said the disposal reflected the company’s “clear focus on progressing the right opportunities” across its global portfolio. The sale completes Woodside’s withdrawal from Trinidad and Tobago following the disposal of its Greater Angostura operations to Perenco.
For BP, the acquisition provides control over project design, timing and marketing in a country where it already has a substantial operating position. The company is Trinidad and Tobago’s largest domestic gas supplier, produced around one billion cubic feet a day there during 2025 and owns 45% of the Atlantic LNG export facility.
Trinidad’s gas shortage has forced LNG and petrochemical plants to operate below capacity, contributing to the closure or idling of ammonia and methanol facilities and Atlantic LNG’s first processing train. Atlantic LNG exported around nine million tonnes in 2025, compared with nominal capacity of about 12 million tonnes.
The government has consequently pressed offshore producers to accelerate development. Trinidad’s energy ministry estimated last year that Calypso could add around 700 million cubic feet a day to domestic supply, although it emphasised that a final investment decision had not been reached.
Woodside and the government agreed initial commercial terms during 2025, including the unitisation of neighbouring acreage to reduce costs and tax liabilities. Woodside had previously argued that the production-sharing terms were better suited to oil than a capital-intensive gas development.
Full ownership may simplify decision-making, but it does not resolve Calypso’s underlying challenges. BP must still complete engineering, submit a development plan and determine whether expected gas prices justify construction in ultra-deep water. The acquisition therefore adds a potentially important resource without yet committing BP to the full cost of bringing it into production.
The timing gives the deal broader strategic significance. BP is marketing its UK North Sea business and US biogas company Archaea Energy as part of chief executive Meg O’Neill’s effort to simplify the group, reduce debt and prioritise assets capable of competing for capital.
Calypso suggests that this is a process of concentration rather than indiscriminate disposal. Trinidad offers BP an existing production base, LNG ownership and a domestic market short of gas. Control of a large nearby discovery could protect the utilisation of infrastructure in which the company already has capital invested.
The contrast with the North Sea is particularly clear. BP is selling a mature portfolio containing late-life fields and substantial decommissioning obligations while consolidating an undeveloped resource with potential for material production growth. Calypso carries considerable execution risk, but its scale and connection to BP’s integrated gas position give it strategic importance that smaller mature assets cannot offer.
The purchase nevertheless remains an option on future value rather than an immediate answer to Trinidad’s shortage. Its success will be determined by the eventual development cost, fiscal agreement and speed of approval, not by the size of the discovered resource alone.
