Reports from Port of Spain indicate that Trinidad and Tobago Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Stuart Young, has, in recent weeks, been busy seeking to expand the frontiers of international interest in his country’s energy sector. A days-old disclosure from the sector reports that Young had met with senior officials of the Australian energy company, Woodside Energy, regarding what, reportedly, is the company’s oil and gas production as well as a deep water project in the twin-island Republic. Trinidad and Tobago’s relationship with the more than half a century old company, which is credited with the discovery of major offshore gas fields in Western Australia, is reflective of the work which the CARICOM member state has done to expand the frontiers of its own energy sector.
Young recently met with Woodside Chief Executive Meg O’Neill at the Australian company’s Houston, Texas office. Arising out of the meeting, he reportedly said that himself and the Australian company’s Chief Executive “discussed Woodside Energy’s operations in Trinidad and Tobago, their continued production of oil and gas,” as well as ‘Calypso’, a reportedly “exciting and promising” deep water project which the state-owned T&T oil sector and the Australian company have been pursuing jointly. Young is also quoted as saying that the T&T oil sector and the Australian company “are currently working together in commercial negotiations to ensure the future production of hydrocarbon resources from the deep water and I look forward to announcements in the future.” Calypso reportedly has a combined proven “plus probable and contingent resource of 409 million barrels of oil equivalent.”
The meeting between Young and the Woodside CEO took place on the fringe of the CERAWeek event, a high-profile gathering of global leaders to advance new ideas, insights and solutions to some of the major challenges confronting the future of energy. Young has had a recent hectic period in his capacity as T&T’s Energy Minister, having, over the past three weeks travelled to Venezuela to discuss with officials of the government there the joint development of the giant Dragon Oil Field situated near the maritime border of the two nations and owned by the state-run Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.
Young, and T&T Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, were also in Guyana recently, addressing the country’s second international oil and gas conference.
