I was shocked to see the cost of drilling for oil and Hydrocarbons,BP the oil giants in TT has given an oil drilling company the contract to drill 3 offshore wells, costing them $US 375000 dayrate,, it will last 240 days.There is potential for 3 more wells after this,.BP has 12 platforms and they are one of TTs biggest companies,in the meantime China's second biggest oil and hydrocarbons company has been awarded 2 blocks in TTs offshore northeast waters,Chevron is also asking a piece of the action.There are many other companies in TT,Repsol Spain,PARENCO Colombia,Quatar and many more.

Gas is also flowing in TT at the moment from some fields and TT industries are up and working,TTdidn't need to wait for Dragon,when that comes TTwould be there to help,TT have the infrastructure,Venezuela doesn't.

TT await the results from the ships collecting seismic date offshore TT,an area more than 4000sq.kilometres.Exon Mobil is dealing with this and costing $US 42 million.

@granite

The same sandstone formation is attracting numerous oil companies to bid on various blocks off T&T. The formation is very similar to the one in Guyana and Suriname.

The costs noted above owing to deep-water exploration are very expensive. The Chinese oil company bought two blocks. Exxon got a few very large blocks.

Chevron recently visited T&T. The government is giving them favourable conditions owing to the risk.

Watch Exxon; it will soon start to drill 3 wells ... They will strike large deposits according to rumours.

@sgtdjones

I read that TT may even go better than Guyana,you ever thought of going and working in the energy industry.

@granite

What my company earns in consulting fees from the global oil majors is simply too much for T&T corporations to compete with.

Under the previous government, we held a U.S. $1 million-a-month contract tied to the Petrotrin refinery. To this day, I honestly can’t see why anyone is eager to restart that refinery.

Originally, when it was Texaco, the plant was built for about 50,000 barrels a day. Then the PNM, making what I consider a boneheaded decision, pushed it to 100,000 barrels a day. After that, another so-called “visionary” expanded it again to 200,000 barrels a day.

Yet at our peak, T&T produced only around 90,000 barrels a day of crude. So why not modernize the original 50,000-barrel Texaco setup, keep it efficient, and simply sell the remaining oil on the open market?

And yes, I’m still waiting to see a Black man lead his country to true first-world status. People will call that “mental slavery” or make excuses, but just look at the opportunities T&T has squandered. They packed everything into Port of Spain without building the infrastructure to support it. Now the roads are choked, productivity is bleeding out, and we’re losing billions. Let it rain POS floods.

This is a small island; spread the ministries out: put offices in San Fernando, La Brea, Princes Town, Sangre Grande, and so on. Ministers can still meet in Parliament in Port of Spain when they have to. But no, they can’t imagine travelling 35 km, so they’ll overnight at the Hyatt instead. I drove over 100 kms today, on the 401, the busiest highway in North America, but made it home.

That’s why I don’t support politicians. They become millionaires overnight, and the citizens are left to pay the price.

@sgtdjones

You may have brains in your head but sometimes you wonder how some people find high positions in jobs,what you say sounds very sensible ,instead they overloaded the system without making improvements.