Page 8 - LatAmOil Week 04 2021

LatAmOil TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO LatAmOil

Port of Spain aiming to launch next

deepwater bidding round by end-2021

FRANKLIN Khan, the prime minister of Trin- seismic and all the well information will now be
idad and Tobago, has revealed that his gov- packaged. And added to [that], BHP will now be
ernment intends to launch its next deepwater relinquishing acreage they do not want because
bidding round before the end of this year. that is part of the PSC. After the exploration
Khan made an announcement to that effect period, you have to relinquish acreage that you
at the weekend, saying that he expected the auc- do not plan to develop,” he explained.
tions to be “quite attractive” to investors. He did He went on to say that he expected the sites
not reveal whether a specific date had been set forfeited by BHP to draw the attention of poten-
for the licensing round, which will be the first tial investors, since they are close to other blocks
of its kind since the current government took where hydrocarbons have been found. “[The]
office in 2015. relinquished BHP acreage … will be geograph-
The prime minister indicated that he had ically close to the discoveries, and it will have
decided to move forward on this front after BHP important information both from its well infor-
(Australia) announced its decision to withdraw mation and its seismic programme, bearing in
from some of its deepwater blocks. This with- mind that BHP … ran the largest deepwater
drawal opened up a larger section of the coun- seismic survey in the world,” he was quoted as
try’s deepwater offshore zone, he commented. saying by the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. ™
“[The] real upside potential lies in the deepwa-
ter [areas], but it would have made no sense to
come out with a parallel deepwater bid round
[if BHP had been] in the throes of a successful
deepwater programme,” he said, according to
the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian.
The Australian firm took this decision in
line with the terms of its production-sharing
contract (PSC), under which it must forfeit
fields that it has explored but does not intend to
develop, he noted. The PSC also obligates BHP
to make the data it has collected on the areas in
question available for viewing to other potential
investors, he added.
“[We] have now agreed with BHP for the
declassification of the deepwater data, so all the BHP has both shallow- and deepwater licences (Image: BHP)

T&T rejects union’s bid for Petrotrin,

announces plans for another sale

THE government of Trinidad and Tobago said provide sufficient proof of its ability to finance
last week that it had rejected a local trade union’s the deal, he explained.
bid for the Petrotrin oil refinery in Point-a- As a result, the next step will be to offer the
Pierre and would instead make another attempt refinery to investors again, he said. Trinidad and
to sell the facility. Tobago is ready to “return to the open market to
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said at the see if there is anybody else interested in the plant
weekend that Port of Spain would not continue … and explore all options for the utilisation of
negotiations with Patriotic Energies and Tech- the refinery,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
nologies Co., a subsidiary of the Oilfields Work- Port of Spain has been in negotiations with
ers’ Trade Union (OWTU), which represents Patriotic Energies since September 2019, when
local oil and gas workers. The government took it declared the labour union affiliate the winner
this decision because the union was not able to of a tender for the right to acquire Petrotrin.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 28•January•2021