Moonilal: Oil and gas production increased in 2 months

ENERGY Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal said there had been an increase in production in oil and gas since the government came into office, achieved by negotiation with upstreamers and downstreamers.

He made the statement at the post-cabinet media briefing at the Red House, Port of Spain, on July 10.

“Since we came into office, as I’ve said before, we have increased oil production from 48,000 barrels of oil per day, which we met, by almost 5,000 barrels more. We have increased that to almost 54,000 barrels of oil per day.

“We have increased gas production as well. In fact, today, the Prime Minister, myself, and Minister Ernesto Kesar met with the leadership of BP, David Campbell and others, and received the good news that they have also seen a growth in their own production in the second quarter of 2025.

“We are extremely happy to report that Shell has also indicated that they intend to ramp up, expand and enhance production in the Manatee field by ten per cent. That speaks well for our revenue position, our foreign exchange challenge and for investor confidence in TT at this time from the energy sector,” Moonilal said.

Asked how this increase came about during the two months the government had been in office, he replied, “We have been working with the upstreamers and some of the lease operators and so on. There are small issues involved with enhancing production and so on.

“We have been able, in a very short time, to act quickly to deal with some of the more practical problems faced by lease operators, and of course, the enhancement in some of the areas had to do with some quick discussions with the major players as to our continuing participation and the continuing participation of those players.

“But the reports so far have been extremely good and I can tell you we are extremely confident, because, as I said on Monday night, our revenue position moved from $955 million in the second quarter of 2024 to $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025, so it was also an increase in revenue to the country.”

Moonilal said these figures excluded royalties and other payments to the Board of Inland Revenue.