Arthur Deakin, Analyst at Americas Market Intelligence (AMI) believes that Trinidad and Tobago’s oil and gas prospects remain dire and will continue to spiral without new oil and gas discoveries.
In an OilNOW column, Deakin noted that T&T has been struggling with declining gas reserves, a result of having mature gas fields, unappealing fiscal terms, and overshadowing discoveries in neighbouring countries like Guyana and Suriname.
The country was one of the top exporters of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Caribbean and Latin America region. In 2021, T&T was the sixth biggest LNG exporter to Europe, after the USA, Qatar, Russia, Algeria, and Egypt, accounting for about 2% of the total LNG imports to Europe.
But its numbers have been declining.
This year, Deakin noted, T&T’s LNG exports declined within the first five months of 2022.
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The twin-island Republic has commenced efforts to revive its “collapsing industry” and encourage investor interest in its upcoming oil block auction with a proposed increase in the Investment Tax Credit for energy companies and a reduction in the Supplemental Petroleum Tax (SPT) for new wells drilled in shallow waters.
But in Deakin’s view, this will barely make a dent in the situation.
With the global energy crisis in full swing, T&T has been looking to team up with its neighbour Venezuela to revive its LNG export sector. The idea brewing is to export gas from Venezuela to Trinidad by pipeline to put through its Atlantic LNG facility for onward delivery to international markets.
But the AMI analyst said that unless sanctions on Venezuela are lifted, or a major gas discovery is made – both of which are rather unlikely – Trinidad will see a continued decline of its oil and gas industry.
