T&T offers to help Caribbean states monetise their oil & gas resources

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has offered Trinidad and Tobago’s expertise in the oil and gas sector to its Caribbean neighbours who are now entering the industry.

Speaking at today’s opening of the 2023 Guyana Energy Conference and Expo, Rowley said the twin-island nation, which has over 100 years of expertise in the oil and gas sector, already has the infrastructure that countries such as Guyana, Suriname, Grenada and Barbados would need to monetise their resources in the fastest possible time.

“In today’s economic environment, however, investments in enabling infrastructure and technology can be costly even to the point of being prohibitive. Trinidad and Tobago has the energy infrastructure to monetise hydrocarbon resources produced by its Caribbean neighbours and can do that now,” Rowley stated.

“Trinidad and Tobago provides a viable option for those countries that wish to optimise the monetisation of their hydrocarbon resources without incurring substantial capital expenditure.”

The prime minister highlighted that T&T’s petroleum infrastructure includes 10 ammonia plants, seven methanol plants, four LNG plants, an iron and steel complex and an oil refinery that produced 140,000 barrels of oil per day.

Rowley told the audience and international investors that the state-owned oil refinery in south, Trinidad, which was closed in 2018, is available for restart, upgrade and use “on reasonable terms”.

Rowley highlighted the Dragon Gas Field, which is owned by Venezuela, as an example of Trinidad and Tobago working with a neighbour to monetise a petrochemical resource.

The US Government recently granted Trinidad and Tobago a waiver from sanctions imposed on Venezuela to press forward with plans to extract natural gas.

The terms of the waiver are still being finalised.

Rowley said T&T is also willing to assist countries to develop training programs to meet the human resource needs of their oil and gas industry.

Rowley stated that Caribbean countries have a window of opportunity to take proactive steps to optimise their resources to benefit the local and regional economies.

 “We must use our energy resources for the benefit of all our people, to build resilience and scale in our economies and create energy security for the region,” he stated.