Exxon Considers Exploration Offshore Trinidad

Exxon is reportedly in talks with the government of Trinidad and Tobago for oil exploration in up to seven offshore blocks, according to unnamed sources who spoke to Reuters.

Per the report, the Trinidad and Tobago blocks are in close proximity to Exxon’s Stabroek block offshore Guyana.

“We are in discussions with major players to ramp up exploration and production within and outside of bid rounds,” the energy minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Roodlal Moonilal, told Reuters.

“We are currently considering one such proposal, and if the negotiations are successful, a major announcement will soon be made,” the minister also said without mentioning names.

The Caribbean nation is the largest oil and gas producer in the region and ranks 17^th in the world. Its oil and gas industry is seen growing at a compound annual rate of 4.4% over the decade to 2030, with companies involved in that growth including BP, Shell, and Spain’s Repsol.

Earlier this year, the Trinidad and Tobago government announced plans to tender 26 offshore blocks along its eastern and northern coast. The deadline for submissions was July 2, and the winning bids will be announced in three months. The blocks subject to that tender, however, do not include the seven blocks that Exxon is in talks about, Reuters noted in its report.

Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s neighbor Guyana has become the fifth-largest oil exporter in Latin America in less than a decade, output has grown from 400,000 bpd to over 660,000 bpd in a matter of months, and Exxon’s plans to boost this to 1.3 million bpd by 2030 seem perfectly realistic.

Exxon recently got itself a new partner in Guyana’s Stabroek block, after Chevron won the arbitration case against Exxon concerning its acquisition of Hess Corp. Its expansion in the region marks a natural development from the success in Guyana.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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