Moonilal: Government fixed $7b PNM energy mistake

ENERGY Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal says government acted to correct an error made under its PNM predecessor which could have cost Trinidad and Tobago $7 billion in revenue.

He questioned how the error happened under the watch of his immediate predecessor Stuart Young and has asked for the matter to be investigated.

Moonilal made the comments at a post-cabinet news conference at the Red House, Port of Spain, on July 10.

All of those comments were subsequently rejected by Young who said neither he nor the former PNM cabinet was responsible for the claims which Moonilal was making.

Moonilal said cabinet considered and approved a note from the ministry to amend a production sharing contract (PSC) for a particular energy block that is operated by Woodside Energy.

"It is the intention here that Woodside Energy in collaboration with BP would have entered into discussions and a contract for the development of this field."

On entering office, Moonilal continued, government found that Young "brought a note to cabinet in January 2025, which is a few months ago of course...two or three months before the holding of the general election."

He said in that note, Young asked cabinet to agree to a PSC for Woodside for the block.

Cabinet, Moonilal continued, agreed in January to a PSC involving the ministry, Woodside Energy and BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd, for this acreage.

"It was only discovered in April 2025, that the note taken to cabinet, and approved, contained a detrimental matrix involving costing and returns to the government and the people of TT by way of profit share."

He said a table in the note which was recommended by Young and approved by the then Dr Keith Rowley cabinet in January that reduced the government's share of the profits of the particular PSC by between 20 to 30 per cent.'

"What it meant is that this country stood to lose...if we did not act today...the country stood to loose in terms of revenue...$6.7 billion (US$1 billion) because of the note taken by Mr Stuart Young...over the life of the proposed deep water development."

Moonilal said it was amazing that Woodside picked up the mistake and brought it to government's attention.

"We moved with haste to discuss...with the players and the stakeholders...and today we approved a new natural gas price class structure and matrix...which gave the government of Trinidad and Tobago...at the lowest end...10 per cent increase and at the highest end 20 per cent increase in our revenue from that particular project."

Moonilal said, "It amounts roughly by the calculations of those by the ministry to be US$1 billion over the life of the project."

He added it was extremely important to the government..

"I have asked incidentally for a complete investigation by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries as to how an error...a mistake...a miscalculation...could take place with a pricing matrix that allows a government to lose US$1 billion...almost $7 billion in the life of a project...how could a mistake like that take place."

Moonilal accepted it is inevitable and human that small errors could be made in documents.

"But this is not a small error. This is an error of $7 billion that was picked up outside of the ministry."

Moonilal repeated government had to correct the error post haste.

"Today we did, and in doing so, we have earned effectively, by passing one note at the cabinet. I can tell you by passing one note at the cabinet, we have just earned $7 billion."

Moonilal said government was collecting revenue by "correcting the mistakes of Stuart Young and others."

He added this is happening "without producing one extra barrel of oil per day (bopd)."

Moonilal described the development as extremely disturbing.

''Even in a room with diplomats. Even when they hear of this, their eyes roll."

Moonilal said, "I cannot yet speak to white-collar crime...corruption...an invisible hand involved in this."

He added after being in public life for 25 years, he had never witnessed anything like it.

Moonilal recalled a past event when Rowley was housing minister, $10 million was reported missing from that ministry and former prime minister Patrick Manning asked where that money went.

"That pales as insignificant when you consider the mind-boggling figure of $7 billion."

He said, "I will not yet ask where was the $7 billion intended to go."

Moonilal added that cabinet which approved this note, included Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles, Faris Al-Rawi, Foster Cummings and other frontline opposition members.

Since the UNC assumed office, Moonilal continued, "we have increased oil production from 48,000 bopd which we met...today by almost 5,000 barrels more.

He said natural gas production had increased as well but provided no figures.

Moonilal added together with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Minister in the Energy Ministry Ernesto Kesar with BP's leadership.

"We received the good news from Mr (David) Campbell (BP president) and BP that they have also seen a growth in their own production in the second quarter of 2025."

Moonilal said Shell has also indicated "that they intend to ramp up and expand production and enhance production in the Manatee field by ten percent."

He added this augured well for TT's revenue position, addressing foreign exchange challenges and boosting investor confidence in the energy sector.

Young: Ministry's staff prepared, vetted numbers, not PNM cabinet

In a WhatsApp response, Young said, "Minister Moonilal’s attempt to attribute blame on me and the previous cabinet for what he has admitted is a pricing matrix error in a previous cabinet note reeks of desperation."

The pricing matrix, he continued, would have been prepared by the technical staff at the Energy Ministry and vetted by the technical staff including the ministry's permanent secretary.

"I do not know what are the specifics that he is referring to but I am confident that it was not due to any ‘error’ on the part of the cabinet nor myself."

Young said, "I understand that Minister Moonilal is struggling to prove himself in his new role and is out of his depth but he should keep the theatre out of the serious business of the energy sector."

On Moonilal's comments of increased energy production since the UNC won the April 28 general election, Young said, "All of the energy production post April 28 would be due to the work that was done prior to April 28."

He added, "Minister Moonilal has not done a single thing to enhance the production since assuming office."

Young said Moonilal "should be asked what exactly he has done that is responsible for production since assuming office.”

Before the election, Young succeeded Rowley as prime minister.

The UNC won the election 26-13-2.