Trinidad and Tobago talks with Indian Oil about reviving refinery

Trinidad and Tobago is in talks with ?Indian Oil Corp to restart its mothballed 165,000-barrel-per-day Guaracara oil refinery, Energy Minister ?Roodal ?Moonilal said, as the Caribbean nation looks to revive refining capacity shut more than seven years ago.

The refinery in the south was shut down in 2018 by the previous government, which blamed its closure on massive losses and debt.

Moonilal said in an interview at the India Energy Week that "we can come up with a new type of commercial structure" for Indian Oil.

If all goes well, by the end of next year, or end-2026, I think we could be on track to start back at some level of production.

Moonilal stated that the crude oil production of Trinidad and Tobago is currently less than 55,000 bpd. Guaracara previously processed crude oil from Africa, Russia and Venezuela.

Moonilal stated that the country is open to resuming the importation of Venezuelan crude oil if the refinery restarts. However, the immediate priority for Caracas remains development of the shared offshore gas resources.

"We had a crude contract with Venezuela in the early 1990s. "We can bring it back on the table," he said. But at the moment, priority is given to the gas fields that cross borders.

Moonilal stated that Trinidad and Tobago supports Shell and BP in their request for U.S. authorization to develop three gasfields, including one located near Venezuelan waters.

Gas shortages have caused the flagship Atlantic LNG plant in Canada and its petrochemical plants to operate below capacity.

Direct negotiations are preferred by the minister to bidding rounds for exploration blocks, he said.

Three?sources who are familiar with the process said that Trinidad and Tobago missed its deadline last month to award China's CNOOC three deepwater blocks, despite the fact that its technical team concluded the bids met the criteria.

Karinsa Tulsie, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, said she couldn't comment on?the reason for the delay.

Direct negotiations led to the award of an ultra-deepwater oil block in August 2012 to Exxon Mobil, a U.S. oil giant.

He added that the government had also approached Chevron in order to gauge their interest in offshore exploration. It is currently in talks with other global companies, including TotalEnergies which is developing an underwater discovery in Suriname.

(source: Reuters)