Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Exxon­Mo­bil has praised the speed at which it was able to se­cure ap­provals to be­gin seis­mic ac­tiv­i­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go, with the en­er­gy gi­ant now ex­press­ing op­ti­mism that its on­go­ing tech­ni­cal work could even­tu­al­ly lead to a hy­dro­car­bon dis­cov­ery.

The up­date came fol­low­ing a meet­ing yes­ter­day be­tween Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and Exxon­Mo­bil’s Trinidad and To­ba­go op­er­a­tions man­ag­er Dr Bram Willem­sen, where the com­pa­ny’s on­go­ing ac­tiv­i­ties and fu­ture op­por­tu­ni­ties in T&T’s en­er­gy sec­tor were dis­cussed.

Ac­cord­ing to a state­ment from the Prime Min­is­ter, Willem­sen spoke pos­i­tive­ly about the ease of do­ing busi­ness in T&T and in­di­cat­ed that the com­pa­ny was able to move through the reg­u­la­to­ry and ad­min­is­tra­tive process at an un­usu­al­ly fast pace.

“This was the fastest Exxon­Mo­bil has been able to se­cure the nec­es­sary ap­provals and com­plete the ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­ce­dures re­quired to be­gin seis­mic ac­tiv­i­ties,” the state­ment said.

The com­pa­ny is now con­tin­u­ing tech­ni­cal work as it as­sess­es T&T’s hy­dro­car­bon po­ten­tial.

Willem­sen al­so ex­pressed Exxon­Mo­bil’s “op­ti­mism” about that work, with hopes of “a hy­dro­car­bon find that can gen­er­ate sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fits for the peo­ple and econ­o­my of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

No hy­dro­car­bon dis­cov­ery has yet been an­nounced and the com­pa­ny re­mains in the ex­plo­ration phase.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar wel­comed Exxon­Mo­bil’s as­sess­ment of the lo­cal busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment and reaf­firmed her ad­min­is­tra­tion’s com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing a “busi­ness-friend­ly en­vi­ron­ment that en­cour­ages for­eign in­vest­ment and al­lows com­pa­nies to es­tab­lish and com­mence op­er­a­tions ef­fi­cient­ly.”

“The Gov­ern­ment re­mains fo­cused on at­tract­ing in­vest­ment, cre­at­ing sus­tain­able jobs, ex­pand­ing eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ties and de­vel­op­ing new rev­enue streams to sup­port the con­tin­ued growth and pros­per­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” the state­ment said.

Exxon­Mo­bil’s ex­plo­ration ac­tiv­i­ties are be­ing close­ly watched be­cause of the po­ten­tial eco­nom­ic sig­nif­i­cance of any com­mer­cial dis­cov­ery, par­tic­u­lar­ly as T&T seeks to in­crease hy­dro­car­bon pro­duc­tion and se­cure ad­di­tion­al sup­plies for its down­stream en­er­gy sec­tor.

The meet­ing was al­so at­tend­ed by En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Ernesto Ke­sar.

US-T&T re­la­tions at high

The pos­i­tive as­sess­ment from Exxon­Mo­bil comes as Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s Gov­ern­ment al­so moves to deep­en eco­nom­ic and se­cu­ri­ty ties with the Unit­ed States, with Wash­ing­ton de­clar­ing that re­la­tions be­tween the two coun­tries are at a “his­toric high.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar made the state­ment while re­spond­ing to US Deputy Sec­re­tary of State Christo­pher Lan­dau, fol­low­ing his vis­it to T&T ear­li­er this week. She thanked Lan­dau for his vis­it and ex­pressed grat­i­tude to US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump for his “strong sup­port” for T&T.

“My Gov­ern­ment deeply val­ues the strong and en­dur­ing friend­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

“We are proud of the progress be­ing made to­geth­er in en­er­gy de­vel­op­ment, crit­i­cal min­er­als, trade and in­vest­ment, and the fight against transna­tion­al crime and drug traf­fick­ing.”

The Prime Min­is­ter said her ad­min­is­tra­tion looked for­ward to fur­ther strength­en­ing the re­la­tion­ship for the “mu­tu­al ben­e­fit, se­cu­ri­ty and pros­per­i­ty” of both coun­tries.

Her com­ments came af­ter Lan­dau, in a so­cial me­dia post, gave a glow­ing as­sess­ment of the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the two gov­ern­ments.

“Un­der Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, re­la­tions be­tween the US and Trinidad and To­ba­go are at a his­toric high,” Lan­dau said.

Lan­dau said he was “ho­n­oured and de­light­ed” to trav­el to Port-of-Spain to cel­e­brate joint achieve­ments in “pro­mot­ing en­er­gy de­vel­op­ment, strength­en­ing crit­i­cal min­er­al sup­ply chains, and com­bat­ing drug car­tels.”

His vis­it co­in­cid­ed with the for­mal start of re­fur­bish­ment works at the for­mer Arcelor­Mit­tal steel plant at Point Lisas, which is be­ing re­vived through a pro­posed US$750 mil­lion in­vest­ment by Ibis Steel Com­pa­ny, backed by US-based Pin­na­cle Steel and Vana­di­um Cor­po­ra­tion.

The plant has been idle since Arcelor­Mit­tal shut down op­er­a­tions in 2016, leav­ing 644 work­ers dis­placed.

Pin­na­cle plans an ini­tial US$250 mil­lion in­vest­ment to re­fur­bish the fa­cil­i­ty, with first pro­duc­tion tar­get­ed for the end of 2027. The ini­tial restart is ex­pect­ed to cre­ate 350 jobs, ris­ing to 500 full-time po­si­tions once pro­duc­tion be­gins.

A fur­ther US$500 mil­lion ex­pan­sion could even­tu­al­ly in­crease em­ploy­ment to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1,000 jobs.

Be­yond steel pro­duc­tion, the fa­cil­i­ty is ex­pect­ed to process vana­di­um, a crit­i­cal min­er­al used in aero­space en­gi­neer­ing and bat­tery tech­nol­o­gy.