PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -The Trinidad and Tobago authorities mentioned it expects profitable bids to be introduced inside three months following Wednesday’s closing ceremony of the 2025 deep water aggressive bidding spherical.
A authorities assertion mentioned that the 2025 bidding spherical closed earlier on Wednesday and {that a} complete of 4 bids had been acquired for 4 blocks. Three of those bids got here from CNOOC Restricted, the most important producer of offshore crude oil and pure gasoline in China, and one of many world’s largest impartial oil and gasoline exploration and manufacturing firms.
The opposite is the US primarily based STIT Power Restricted/Groundports Consortium.
Minister within the Ministry of Power and Power Industries, Ernesto Kesar, addressing the ceremony, said that Trinidad and Tobago’s deepwater has been largely unexplored.
“Within the restricted exploration, there was the invention of hydrocarbons, specifically pure gasoline. There was proof of the existence of trapped and probably producible accumulation of hydrocarbons, by oil reveals in some explored blocks.”
He mentioned this yr, along with Trinidad and Tobago, 20 nations have launched bid rounds, and others have indicated their intention to take action within the close to future.
“Within the Latin American and Caribbean area, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay launched bid rounds, and each Guyana and Suriname have signaled their intentions to launch bid rounds sooner or later. Because of this we’re not the one sport on the town, in an trade that a couple of main oil and gasoline firms dominate. We, subsequently, are practical in our expectations.”
Kesar mentioned that in all, 9 firms requested information packages, with the bulk having deepwater expertise.
“To these firms that submitted bids, we admire your confidence in our deepwater hydrocarbon sources and guarantee you that we’ll expeditiously evaluate bids. We sit up for efficiently finalizing manufacturing sharing contracts with you for the blocks on which we bid,” he mentioned.
The Junior Minister said that the following step is the graduation of a complete and clear analysis course of, as outlined within the Aggressive Bidding Order 2025, contained in Authorized Discover No. 20 of January 27, 2025.
He mentioned {that a} Technical Analysis Committee will evaluate the bid proposals, and an Overview Committee established by the Cupboard and comprised of representatives of the Ministry of Power and Power Industries, the Ministry of Finance, and the Workplace of the Lawyer Common.
Kaser said that the stories and suggestions of those committees will then be submitted to the Cupboard for approval.
“Profitable bids shall be introduced inside three months from at present. The profitable bidder shall be issued a manufacturing sharing contract for a interval not exceeding ten years initially, protecting the block. Nonetheless, upon the achievement of a industrial discovery, it might be renewed, as to an element solely of the contract space, for a time period of 25 years from the efficient date of the manufacturing sharing contract.”
In January of this yr, the federal government invited bids for 26 deepwater blocks within the Japanese Marine Space of Trinidad, an space that cumulatively covers 28,177 sq. kilometers.
Kaser mentioned the deepwater acreage on supply is split into two central areas that outline the structural and stratigraphic framework.
He mentioned the northern area, which contains the Tobago Basin, Barbados Ridge, and the Barbados Basin, and the jap area, comprising the Barbados Accretionary Prism, which is subdivided into three zones—the Zone of Supra-Advanced Basins, the Zone of Stabilization, and the Zone of Accretion.
The Junior Minister mentioned that the deepwater acreage is roofed by a mixture of fashionable and classic seismic datasets, with roughly 50 % of the blocks having 3D seismic protection.
“This focus is within the Japanese Blocks as in comparison with the northwestern deepwater blocks, that are lined by classic 2D. To improve these areas, the Ministry has signed a multi-client settlement with Searcher Geodata UK Ltd. to amass 7,114 sq. kilometers of recent 3D information within the Tobago Trough. This can give 3D protection to blocks now lined solely by 2D,” he added.
He mentioned that data on 68 wells was included within the 2025 Deep Water Bid Spherical information bundle that additionally contained key stories corresponding to biostratigraphy, geochemistry, and fluid evaluation that may help with understanding the paleoenvironment, effectively correlation, supply rock high quality, and the general hydrocarbon potential.
“The effectively logs additionally assisted with evaluating reservoir parameters corresponding to porosity, permeability, and fluid saturations. These wells enabled bidders to refine their regional stratigraphic frameworks and improve their general geological understanding of Trinidad and Tobago.
“The deepwater space is presently crucial area for international oil and gasoline exploration and discovery, with probably the most discoveries and reserves in passive continental margin basins. The deepwater discoveries have had the best contribution to the overall newly found oil and gasoline reserves within the marine areas, with an growing variety of lithological reservoirs found,” Kaser instructed the ceremony.
He said that deepwater exploration has the potential to find important and high-quality reservoirs, and is estimated to carry roughly 30 % of the world’s undiscovered oil and gasoline reserves.
“Deepwater exploration is dear. Nevertheless, advances in expertise have made deepwater exploration possible and viable. Firms, subsequently, are ready to take the danger, because the rewards are nice, and there stays a rising power demand from rising economies and industrialized nations.
The deepwater and ultra-deepwater exploration and manufacturing market is experiencing strong development, pushed by the worldwide inhabitants’s growing demand for power, in addition to urbanization and industrialization in rising economies. The market is predicted to develop at a compound annual development price of 6.87 per cent from 2020 to 2030, reaching a staggering US$96.27 billion by the top of 2030.”
Kaser mentioned that international deepwater spending by main worldwide oil producers is forecast to develop to a mean of US$79 billion in 2026 and 2027, a 20 % improve from the typical annual quantity between 2023 and 2025.
“It’s a marked turnaround from the early days when the drilling expertise didn’t totally exploit the potential of deepwater sources, or the Deepwater Horizon incident, which uncovered the vulnerabilities of deepwater drilling, and back-to-back oil busts, crushed demand, and money circulate.”
Kaser mentioned petroleum economies are looking for to capitalise on the turnaround by selling deepwater oil and gasoline exploration as a way to extend their power reserves, manufacturing, and power safety.
