Crude oil production in Trinidad and Tobago has experienced a steady decline since its peak in the late 1970s, when the country produced almost 230,000 barrels of oil per day. There was a brief period of substantial increase from 2002 to 2006, but since then, production has fallen sharply from 143,000 barrels per day to just over 50,000 barrels per day in 2025 (average Jan-Mar).
Most of the crude oil produced in Trinidad and Tobago comes from offshore marine areas. On average, over the last 10 years, about 68% of all crude produced came from offshore fields. The offshore production rate has fallen faster than the onshore rate. In fact, offshore production fell by 38%, a decline of 21,000 barrels, while onshore production declined by 24%, a decline of 5,500 barrels over the same period.
Typically, offshore reservoirs deplete faster than onshore reservoirs due to geological and economic factors. Geologically, offshore wells operate under higher pressure, which leads to higher initial production rates. However, when this pressure drops, the decline can be rapid. Economically, offshore production is much more expensive than onshore production. The extremely high cost of building and operating offshore platforms and drilling rigs incentivizes the extraction of resources as quickly as possible.
Despite producing smaller volumes, onshore production has remained fairly stable over the last 10 years. This is important because onshore production stimulates economic activity on land, allowing local, small-to-medium-sized companies to participate in the energy sector. These companies can potentially use local currency for capital investment and generate foreign exchange from the oil sold.
Onshore production is primarily based in South Trinidad and benefits local economies by contributing to economic activities for local businesses and contractors in the community and creating a wide variety of jobs.
Programmes like the Lease Out/Farm Out (LO/FO) programme, launched in 1989, have also strengthened onshore production. The programme came about as part of the advocacy work of the Energy Chamber.
The LO/FO programme allows state-owned oil companies, primarily Heritage Petroleum Company Limited (formerly Petrotrin), to lease or "farm out" blocks of mature onshore acreage to smaller, independent local companies. These independent operators are responsible for reactivating dormant wells, performing workovers, and drilling new wells in these areas, leveraging their specific expertise and lower operational costs. The success of the program is also tied to later developments, such as the introduction of Incremental Production Sharing Contracts (IPSCs), a hybrid model that further incentivizes operators to increase production from specific fields.
Heritage Petroleum accounts for around 55% of onshore production, while the Lease Out/Farm Out programme along with the IPSCs accounts for about 42%.
Creating additional opportunities to encourage onshore activity is essential for maintaining a base of activity in the energy sector. This can be done in several ways, including addressing issues in the fiscal regime to allow small operators to reinvest in their operations, drill new wells, and increase production.
Recently, ExxonMobil signed a new production sharing contract (PSC) for the newly created Ultra Deepwater block (UD-1), reportedly seeking an oil play there. If successful, this could lead to an increase in future offshore production, along with the development of other projects from Perenco, bpTT, Shell, and EOG Resources.