Guyana & Trinidad to restart working group needed to push energy cooperation

Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) are resuming talks focused specifically on energy cooperation in a bid to leverage the resources, facilities and expertise in both countries, Guyana’s Natural Resources Minister Vickram Bharrat said.

According to Bharrat, the two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have long been collaborating on mutual priorities.

Juxtaposing Guyana’s newfound oil and gas resources with Trinidad’s experience in this sector, Bharrat said efforts to deepen cooperation in the energy sector have been ongoing.

But there was some amount of interruption in the establishment and implementation of technical working groups following the death of T&T’s Former Energy Minister, Franklin Khan in 2021.

Now, however, work in those groups are slated to recommence.

“…We agreed we are going to restart that working group so we can have greater collaboration between Trinidad and Guyana,” Bharrat said at the International Energy Conference and Expo’s closing panel at the Marriott Hotel in Kingston, Georgetown.

Bharrat’s comments came days after he said Guyana is keen on advancing natural gas cooperation with T&T and Suriname, with the aim of monetizing that resource as well.

And he noted that Guyana’s interest in natural gas cooperation should not signal a blunt refusal of Trinidad’s support in the oil sector. Guyana, he clarified, is already in the process of establishing its own small oil refinery and as such, would not need Trinidad’s Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

Already, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for renewed and enhanced cooperation that will see heavy political involvement to address among other things the removal of non-tariff barriers and impediments to trade.

Before that, the countries concluded the Framework Agreement on the Deepening of Bilateral Cooperation; a Trade Protocol on Fresh Agricultural Produce and Forest Products; a Memorandum of Understanding concerning Cooperation in the area of Food Security; and a Memorandum of Understanding on the Energy Sector Cooperation.