Petrotrin's refinery has finally been upgraded as all plants, including the fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) or cat cracker, are now operating at full capacity.
This was revealed by Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine during an interactive session with south business owners at Achievors Banquet Hall, in Duncan Village, San Fernando, on Thursday night.
The cat cracker was shut down in 2011 for upgrades to increase its capacity and to allow for production of more gasoline with improved octane ratings so that production of less heavier distillates could be reduced.
The state-owned energy company embarked on the refinery upgrade more than a decade ago, in 2003, with the objective of making it more competitive and to position T&T as the refining centre of the Caribbean and Latin America. Originally estimated to cost $1 billion, the project was plagued with delays and ended up more than $9 billion over its original budget. Ramnarine told the businessmen Petrotrin was facing several challenges in 2010 when the People's Partnership came into office.
"Foreign direct investment in the energy sector was US$510 million and in the preceding three years foreign direct investment in the energy sector had collapsed.
"In 2010, there was one rig offshore and no drilling taking place in Trinmar for three years. There was little or no drilling taking place on land and there was a stagnating upstream sector," he said.
Ramnarine said Petrotrin was also saddled with a failed $3 billion gas to liquids project and an incomplete gasoline optimisation plant which had a cost overrun of 400 per cent.
However, the minister said, the company's fortunes have turned around because there has been a change in the way business is done in the energy sector.
"We looked at the set of laws that govern taxation in the energy sector and we amended 14 pieces of legislation in the period 2010 to 2014. We changed the structures of contracts at the ministry and the outcome of all that change is in the last five years we signed 21 production sharing contracts and licenses," Ramnarine said.
The minister, who said the contracts will bring in US$2 billion in revenue for the country, added that government was able to convince bpTT to invest in the Juniper fields as well as explore two wells on the east coast. Juniper will become bpTT's 14th offshore production facility and drilling will begin in 2015 with the first gas expected in 2017.
Ramnarine said between 2010 to 2014 nine deep water production sharing contracts were signed.
"It is believed that there is more than 3 billion barrels of recoverable oil in deep water. If there is a discovery, and the anticipation is there could be giant oil fields in the deep water, it will bring an entire new economy for the future," he said.