Khan: Petrotrin has 160 million barrels of oil

PETROTRIN has huge deposits of oil, said Energy Minister Franklin Khan, endorsing the State’s shift from refining crude-oil to selling it direct overseas. “Petrotrin sits on a staggering 160 million barrels of recoverable oil,” he said. “But it takes investment to produce it.”

He spoke in the Senate on Tuesday against an Opposition motion which hit Government for Petrotrin’s closure. Khan lamented that Petrotrin had drilled no new oil well for the past one and a half years. “You cannot be in the oil business and don’t drill wells.”

He damned the refinery business by saying that while US$60 of precious foreign exchange must be used to buy each barrel imported crude oil, every barrel refined lost the country US$2.50 to US$5. Further he said a updated treaty known as Marpol in 2020 will require ships to use oil of a sulphur content of less than 0.5 per cent but which the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery is incapable of producing. If the refinery continued such oil would have to be dumped in countries with less regulation. In contrast, he said crude oil exports “keeps us in the game.” Saying many contractors are now unoccupied in south west Trinidad, he saw fresh pil drilling as a way to energise all oil opportunities. He said new imaging techniques makes exploration less risky, while enhanced oil recovery can be done using carbon dioxide injections to old wells. “The plan is to capture carbon dioxide at Point Lisas, pipe it to Forest Reserve and produce more oil.” Saying this couples with TT’s duty to cut carbon emissions, he said, “What better synergy you want?”