ENERGY Minister Stuart Young says although steps are being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, like many other countries, Trinidad and Tobago will not be able to curtail its reliance on oil and gas in the short to medium term.
Young spoke on Wednesday during a feature presentation at the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Latin America and Caribbean Region's Caribbean Technical Symposium and E&P Summit.
He said, "We are conscious of the need to monetise our known oil and gas reserves and to encourage exploration and development of our hydrocarbon resources, while taking steps to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from such activity."
Young noted the event's theme – Recent Activity and Exploration Opportunities in Guyana, Suriname and TT – was "highly topical given the current position of the Caribbean as the hottest hydrocarbon province."
He spoke about the recent developments and exploration activities in TT's upstream oil and gas sector.
"TT occupies a unique position with mature provinces on land and in shallow water and with a frontier province in its deep-water acreage," Young said.
"We have been involved in the petroleum sector for over 100 years and during this period the hydrocarbon sector moved from an oil-dominant sector to a mostly natural-gas-based sector in the early 1990s.
"There has been considerable oil and gas exploration activity on land and in shallow water, resulting in a cumulative production totalling approximately 9.6 billion barrels of oil equivalent."
On the flip side, he noted TT's deepwater province has been left unexplored but for recent activities resulting in several discoveries which are currently being evaluated.
"Today, TT, like many hydrocarbon-producing countries, is at a critical juncture, given the global impetus to clean energy."
Nevertheless, he said, "Recent exploration activity has given a new lease on life to the hydrocarbon potential on both our land and shallow marine areas and has buoyed our expectations in our deepwater areas."
Advances in technology, he noted, have had positive impacts on this country's hydrocarbon exploration, including the use of 3D seismic imaging technology.
"(These discoveries) have been as a result of technological improvements in the industry and the inherent quality of TT as a world class hydrocarbon province," he said.
"This technology continues to evolve with the development of the ocean-bottom cable system, ocean bottom nodes and full waveform inversion technology for the acquisition of seismic data.
"These technologies are widely used in the domestic oil and gas industry with great success," he said, noting that their application has been crucial in identifying not only discoveries but the revision of reserves in existing fields, as well as enabling more accurate and efficient drilling campaigns.
[caption id="attachment_913540" align="alignnone" width="1024"] FILE PHOTO: Pumping jacks along the Petrotrin Field Road.[/caption]
Meanwhile, he said there have been positive results fr
