Energy Ministry to sign off on deepwater licences

Energy and Energy Industries Minister Stuart Young has announced the award of three deepwater blocks to a consortium of bpTT and Shell, coming out of the 2022 deepwater bid rounds.

In a media release on Thursday, Young said Cabinet took the decision on September 8, and an award ceremony will take place on September 25.

At the ceremony, the consortium will sign the material Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) to seal the deal.

“The Ministry of Energy and the consortium have been engaged in complex negotiations over the terms and conditions of the PSCs having regard to the fact the blocks are located in deepwater and required different and novel considerations due to the nature of the expected exploration and possible future production,” Young said.

In December 2021, Young announced the bid rounds after positive reviews in the 2020 Ryder Scott report.

Back then he said there was interest in TT’s deepwater fields, but there were still factors to be considered, given the changing global market and added pressure for energy transition prompting companies to be more cautious about going into new areas of exploration.

Some 17 deepwater blocks were put up for bid, but during the bid rounds, at the end of the 2022 energy conference in June, only four were bid on by a consortium of bp and Shell.

The consortium bid on block 23 – about 20 kilometres off the eastern coast of Tobago – blocks 25(a), 25(b) and 27, all about 100 kilometres from the east coast of Trinidad.

“A lot of these energy companies have been forced by their shareholders to take decisions where they cannot invest in new provinces,” he said during the bid rounds in 2022. He said the consortium was a great positive for TT.