Guyana doing more offshore drilling than T&T – Ex-T&T Energy Minister

Sep 01, 2019 News

Guyana Government officials may not know but drilling activity has increased so much that there’s more offshore drilling here than there is in Trinidad and Tobago. This is according to former Energy Minister of T&T, Kevin Ramnarine.

Former T&T Energy Minister, Kevin Ramnarine

During an address to stakeholders of the party he represents, the United National Congress (UNC), Ramnarine was addressing what he termed to be a decline in the performance of the T&T economy.
He said that drilling activity in the Caribbean island had fallen 57 percent in the last four years, and that that represents a major slowdown in the country.
“Rigs are leaving T&T instead of coming to T&T,” Ramnarine said.
He said that a rig which has worked in the country for eight years is now departing the island to drill in Guyana.
“There is now more offshore drilling activity taking place in Guyana than in T&T.”
According to his calculations, for the first six months of this year, there were 489 offshore rig days there.
“I did a calculation of what was happening in Guyana at the same time, 556. So there is more drilling activity taking place offshore now in Guyana than in T&T.”
The former Minister said that the centre of gravity of Caribbean’s energy sector is now beginning to shift away from T&T.
In an Op-Ed to Newsday, Ramnarine had described the Guyana-Suriname basin as “The New North Sea”, after one of the biggest petroleum developments in the world.
Oil companies operating in Guyana are in action mode, after consecutive discoveries by ExxonMobil, and one by Tullow, all proved Guyana to have world class reserves. Since the first discovery in 2015, Government has been scrambling to put mechanisms in place that would facilitate the developing sector. Guyana is months away from production.