PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, The Trinidad, and Tobago government has described as “false and internationally misleading” a report in an international publication indicating that the country is prepared to reject bids from oil companies BP Plc and Shell Plc for offshore exploration bids.
The report, quoting “people familiar with the matter,” claimed that the Keith Rowley government “is preparing to reject four exploration bids” by the international oil companies “because they failed to meet the government’s minimum requirements.”
But in a statement, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries said that the author of the article that was published in a leading international news agency had “gotten his story wrong” and that the intention was to mislead “not only the population of Trinidad and Tobago but now so, a wider global audience.”
The statement quoted Energy and Energy Industries Minister Stuart R. Young, having informed the population here “on several occasions” that the government “will be engaging in discussions and negotiations with both bpTT and Shell Trinidad and Tobago concerning their bids for four deepwater blocks,”
It said that “both bpTT and Shell Trinidad and Tobago were informed weeks ago that the Ministry would be engaging them in discussions and negotiations about their bids for the four deepwater blocks, and the parties are expected to commence these discussions and negotiations in January 2023”.
As a result, the government said, “this irresponsible journalism…is condemned and rejected”.
Trinidad and Tobago’s deep water bid round closed in June with an offer from a BP-Shell consortium on four of the 17 blocks.
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