Barbados and T&T in joint gas search
By George Alleyne
In what may be emerging
as a Caribbean energy triangle
of sorts, Barbados and Trinidad
and Tobago have signed
a pact governing natural gas
exploration at the overlapping
nautical point of their exclusive
economic zones, and a similar
deal between the Bajans and
Guyanese may be in the works.
Barbados and Trinidad
recently signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU)
to advance their cooperation in
energy matters that could ultimately
lead to the Bajans reaping
amounts of natural gas,
and possibly crude oil, large
enough for domestic and commercial
consumption and even
export.
The MOU is essentially the
first step in tidying-up the legal
framework for oil companies
interested in investing in petroleum
wells owned by the two
countries.
Barbados’ exclusive economic
zone overlaps with that of
Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago,
and Trinidadian exploration
for natural gas has gone to the
point of the Bajan maritime
boundary.
“Our seismic work has
encouraged exploration in the
area, on the border, and we
have been doing exploration
drilling. And … the first set
of wells have been successful,”
said Trinidad’s Prime Minister,
Dr. Keith Rowley, who had
recently flown to Barbados
with his energy minister, Senator
Franklin Khan, to sign the
non-binding agreement.
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Barbados has also done seismic
research on its side of the
border.
Rowley further said about
the positive results from exploration
at the maritime border
with Barbados, “it tells us we
do have some potential in that
area and across the line in Barbados,
geologically, the same
potential is held out.”
“We are all positive that
there are things to be had in
that area in the offshore but to
do that, it requires certain legal
frameworks and the attraction
of investment into this area.”
Rowley said his country had
been looking for gas in the
offshore and now in the deep
water offshore, going further
away from its coastline.
“We are currently in what
we call block 14 in Trinidad and
Tobago, which is just about 85
miles off of our east coast and
as we go further east, we get
nearer to Barbados. Our block
14 is right on the Barbados
border.”
He said it was now necessary
for both countries to lay
the groundwork to encourage
investors in the area.
Barbados Prime Minister,
Mia Mottley said the MOU is a
commitment to cooperate in
energy exploration in the offshore
of both territories.
“Its only binding feature
relates to the confidentiality of
the data which we will access,
and every country commits to
keeping that data confidential,”
she disclosed.
“The MOU this morning
allows us to cooperate in laying
the groundwork for the
two countries to act as one
in encouraging investment in
our…deep water. There will be
two other levels of cooperation
which will be required,” he
stated.
She said the officials were
hopeful that they would have
a general framework treaty, by
year-end, on how they would
treat to unitization.
Trinidad PM Keith Rowley and his Barbados counterpart Mia Mottley during a press briefing
following signing of the MOU Photo by George Alleyne
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