One of the things that was very clear from our recent event on increasing oil production in Trinidad and Tobago is that the leadership of Heritage Petroleum (Heritage), the new Trinidad and Tobago state-owned oil and gas production company, are very bullish about the belowground assets that they now control. The company is clearly excited about the prospects of not only revitalising production from their existing fields, but also about new exploration success, especially in the Gulf of Paria. This is positive news from a sector that has for far too long seemed in terminal decline.
At the closing of the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference 2019, the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago’s (Energy Chamber) Energy Efficiency Declaration was launched. At the time of the launch, 11 of the major companies in the energy sector gave commitments towards achieving more efficient operations by committing to the declaration. At present, more than 50 companies have signed the declaration.
On Thursday 9th May, 2019, Mr. Derek Hudson, Vice President and Country Chair of Shell Trinidad and Tobago Limited, signed the Safe to Work (STOW) Charter, demonstrating the Company’s commitment to the objectives of STOW. Also present at the signing which took place at the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago’s Executive Office were Dr. Thackwray Driver, President & CEO of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago; Mr. Fitzroy Harewood, Chairman of the STOW Implementation Board and President of Pt. Lisas Nitrogen Limited and Mr. Eugene Okpere, Chief Operating Officer of Shell Trinidad and Tobago Limited.
The 2019 shallow water bid round was the first offer of new acreage for oil and gas exploration in Trinidad & Tobago since the downturn in global oil prices in late 2014. The bid round, that closed earlier today, saw bp and Shell, the two major existing gas producers in Trinidad & Tobago jointly bidding on three of the six blocks on offer. The joint bp and Shell bids were received for the three east coast blocks on offer, with no other bids being received for the blocks. No bids were received for the two blocks off Trinidad’s north coast and for the one block on offer in the Gulf of Paria.
Other players in Guyana are gearing up for exploration activity. The news out of Guyana is normally dominated by the successful campaign by ExxonMobil and partner, Hess. While they have certainly been the drivers of the prolific discoveries in Guyana, other majors are also putting things in place to hopefully replicate the success of Exxon.
If Trinidad and Tobago is going to make a success of the newly formed state oil company, Heritage Petroleum (Heritage), the Minister of Finance is going to have to follow through on his previous commitments to review the way in which Supplemental Petroleum Tax (SPT) is structured. The current way in which this tax against revenue is structured acts as a serious impediment to investment in the oil sector.
At the 2019 Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference, the keynote speaker was Michael Stoppard, Vice President and Chief Strategist for Global Gas, IHS Markit.
In an interview with Proactive Investors UK earlier this year, Chairman of Columbus Energy Resources plc (Columbus), Leo Koot, said that this was the year for which they have been waiting.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) 2018 Global Competiveness Index (GCI) ranks Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) as last out of 140 for Co-operation in Labour-employee relations. This article explores the role possibilities for trade unions given that we are in the early stages of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) which is poised to radically transform the workplace.
Mike Wylie, Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Petroleum, has indicated that many of the services that were previously conducted in-house at former Petrotrin, will be contracted out in the new upstream-focused state oil company.
During the first two months of 2019, Paria Fuels imported 448 million litres of petroleum products to service both the domestic and regional markets, previously supplied directly from the now mothballed Point a Pierre refinery. Most of the imported fuel went to service the local Trinidad & Tobago market, with a total sales volume of 213 million litres over the two months, with a further 190 million litres being re-exported. The balance of the imports would be held as inventory for later sales.
BHP has announced that it has found hydrocarbons in its latest deepwater well in Trinidad & Tobago’s deepwater block 23(a). The Bélé-1 well is the first of a three well programme to test prospects around the Bongos discovery, made in 2018. The well is being drilled by the Deepwater Invictus rig and was spud on 2 March 2019 in 2,102 meters water depth. The total planned well depth is 3,693 meters. The 31st March BHP operational review noted that drilling was still in progress.
Organizations are incessantly gathering information and data across every element of their supply chains, from oil fields and pipelines, to refineries, power stations and manufacturing. It has been estimated that 90 per cent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone, but it is feared that data overload is causing a barrier to the effective use of this information.
The Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago’s (Energy Chamber) conference theme of ‘Technology: Transforming the Industry’ will rightly be interpreted by many as a call to acknowledge the role that innovative geological, engineering, process, and IT solutions have – and will continue to have – as local energy companies strive to maintain global competitiveness. I endorse this, but I would like to broaden the idea of the technology impact to consider the impact of new technologies in the space of reputation management, namely social media.
As with many industries, the evolution of the energy sector is increasingly being driven by technology — more advanced solutions that continue to propel the industry forward.
The trick is old hat now. Whenever OWTU leader Ancel Roget wants to stir things up a bit, he will accuse the ‘elites’ of conspiracies and actions to hurt the rest of the country.
Change management models need to be rethought. Change management is usually applied at the organisational level with a focus on controlling disruption and transitioning people towards a new modus operandi. There is need to broaden this context by tracing the implications of the fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) from the global level to the individual.
BP Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT) today announced first gas production from its Angelin development. The project was delivered on time and under budget.
We are in the midst of a revolution. Digital technology is transforming every aspect of human lives, levelling the playing field and causing shifts in the balance of global power. Germany has sought to hijack and capitalise on this movement to the benefit of its manufacturing sector by labelling it ‘Industrie 4.0’ (Industry 4.0) and positioning itself as the world leader. While creating a focus for research and development (R&D) activities in larger Germany companies, its allimportant ‘Mittelstand’ or small and medium enterprises (SME) sector has been a bit slower to adopt the emerging technologies, and it is debatable whether Germany really is the global leader.
Just another of his PR stunts or not, in the past week the Public Service Association’s leader, Watson Duke, threatened a sickout due to a dispute over health claims by some 400 workers at the Housing Development Corporation.
The merit of his claims is something to be sorted between the PSA, HDC’s managers and, if needed, the relevant tribunals. However, what cannot be ignored is Mr Duke’s threat of having public servants skipping work in a coordinated way because, to put it in plain English, that is a strike and that is illegal.
