Trinidad and Tobago is in talks with Indian Oil Corporation 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, located in the south of the country, was closed in 2018 by a previous government that blamed massive losses and debt for its closure.
"We can work out some type of new commercial structure (for Indian Oil)," Moonilal told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of India Energy Week.
"If all things go well, I think by the end of this year or so, end-2026, we may be on target to start back some level of production."
Trinidad and Tobago's crude output currently stands at under 55,000 bpd, Moonilal said. The Guaracara refinery previously processed crude from Africa, Russia, and neighbouring Venezuela.
The country would be open to resuming imports of Venezuelan crude if the refinery restarts, Moonilal said, but its immediate priority with Caracas remains the development of shared offshore gas resources.
"In the early 1990s, we actually had a contract for crude (with Venezuela). So it is something we can put on the table again," he said. "But at this moment, the priority is the cross-border gas fields."
Moonilal said Trinidad and Tobago is backing Shell and BP’s request for US authorisation to develop three gas fields, including one located in Venezuelan waters.
Boosting gas production is critical to supplying the country's flagship Atlantic LNG plant and petrochemical facilities, which have been operating below capacity due to gas shortages.
The minister also said his country prefers awarding exploration blocks through direct negotiations as the process is faster than bidding rounds.
Trinidad and Tobago last month missed its own deadline to award three deepwater blocks to China's CNOOC, despite its technical team concluding the bids met all criteria, three sources familiar with the process told Reuters.
The Ministry of Energy's Permanent Secretary Karinsa Tulsie told Reuters she could not comment on the reasons for the delay.
US oil major Exxon Mobil was awarded an ultra-deepwater block through direct negotiations in August last year.
The government has also approached Chevron to gauge interest in offshore exploration and is holding talks with global companies including TotalEnergies, which is developing a deepwater discovery in neighbouring Suriname, he added.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
