28 oil, gas firms show interest in Trinidad and Tobago's coastal waters

Minister of Energy Stuart Young expressed confidence in the 2023 shallow-water bid round launched on Monday, as several oil and gas companies showed interest in TT’s oil and gas acreage.

At the official launch of the bid round held at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries head office at the Waterfront Complex in Port of Spain, on Wednesday, Young said companies were already excited about the bid round as it had been promoted locally and abroad since last year.

“This shallow-water bid round has already sparked excitement at a number of promotional events or conferences. Notably over the past year alone we promoted this bid round at events at home as well as in Houston, Mexico City and Suriname.

“In March 2023 we started the process with a virtual data room and today it has been accessed by 28 major oil and gas companies.”

“When the ministry invited nominations for blocks, the request for nominations is well received with 62 nominations made to the blocks. Today we are optimistic that the significant level of interest in the shallow-water blocks will translate into a successful bid round.”

A total of 13 blocks would be up for bid for exploration and drilling of possible oil and gas deposits off the coasts of TT. Young said the bid round opened on Monday with the publishing of the Petroleum Regulation Shallow Water Bidding Order being published in the Gazette. The bid round will be open for six months as companies assess the blocks to determine which they would bid on. The deadline for submissions is on April 2, 2024 at 12 noon.

The Government intends to announce successful bidders within four months of the close of the bid round.

The blocks will be offered through production sharing contracts.

On Wednesday, Young said, “The total and unrisked resource estimate of these blocks is approximately 13.4 TCF, the blocks are selected based on technical evaluation of the prospectivity by an internal evaluation team or nominations.”

He also noted that nominations for the blocks were very lively with 62 nominations made to the 13 blocks.

“This is the first shallow water bid round held since 2018, which, to be honest, had a disappointing outcome,” he said. “As a result of this we conducted a series of stakeholder engagements and then then embarked on an internal review of our bid-round payroll process as well as the fiscal terms and conditions.”

He said some of the changes to the fiscal terms and conditions included fiscal stability through a ring-fenced production-sharing contract, cost recovery up to 60 per cent, and the government’s requirement to pay taxes and royalties on behalf of the contractor from the government’s share of the energy profits.