Determined not to relinquish its credentials as the powerhouse of the regional energy industry, Trinidad and Tobago has been redoubling its efforts to attract foreign investors to its energy industry, aware as it is that, in recent years, international interest in the region’s oil and gas sector has shifted decidedly to Guyana, where ExxonMobil remains anchored to the portents promised by what, even now, are believed to be some of the largest off-shore deposits of oil anywhere in the world.
Earlier this week, Port of Spain, through the country’s Ministry of Energy, made the disclosure that it had received sixteen bids from companies seeking to explore and develop oil and natural gas possibilities at eight onshore blocks in the country’s most recent bidding round. In recent years, Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Energy has demonstrated a particular keenness to attract foreign investors to its energy sector, a pursuit that has coincided roughly with the emergence of Guyana’s oil and gas industry, largely through the protracted and costly oil hunt led by the United States super major, ExxonMobil.
Port of Spain’s particular interest, reportedly, is in boosting exports of its liquefied natural gas and various other petrochemical products though, reportedly, the outcomes of recent bidding rounds have not lived up to official expectations. The authorities in Port-of-Spain have also, reportedly, been pushing for the realization of a significant increase in natural gas output in the period ahead in order to secure the revenues necessary to pursue some of the country’s other development-related projects.
A total of eleven onshore and near-shore areas were reportedly offered in the recent bidding round, Trinidad and Tobago’s first onshore auction in ten years, according to the country’s Energy Ministry. The bids were submitted by small energy firms, including Hunter Resource Corporation and Challenger Energy Group. One of the conditions for submitting bids was that bidders file technical and commercial evaluation proposals, provide information on a minimum work programme, minimum expenditure obligations as well as a signing bonus.
