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As Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (TT) since September 2015, finished his keynote speech to the Energy Chamber's 2022 Energy Conference last week a round of applause broke out from the assembled delegates. It was, however, swiftly followed by a wave of deja vu washing over the 738 conference goers. Dr Rowley had, among other things, just told them  that: The proliferation of bid-rounds will increase the competition for capital in an energy market that is undergoing transition. While we are acknowledged as a proven hydrocarbon province with substantial unrealized potential, we need to maintain our competitiveness and resilience. This involves the lowering production costs, improving oil and gas production efficiency, an attractive fiscal regime and a more expeditious execution of the regulatory oversight. To that end, the Ministry of Finance in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, is conducting a comprehensive review of our oil and ga

On December 3rd 2021 Trinidad and Tobago's Energy Minister, Stuart Young, launched the country's Deep Water Competitive Bid Round offering 17 deep water blocks off the northern and eastern coasts.  The round was launched as part of the government's commitment to increasing hydrocarbon production and hopes were then high that the the round would be a success, with Mr Young noting that, " We have opened our data room in July and so far 12 companies have accessed it ". Unfortunately, there was disappointment on June 2nd 2022 when bidding closed and it was revealed that bids had been received for just four blocks . Whilst Mr Young claimed not to be surprised by the poor response to the bid round, this disappointing result was the consequence of the government's repeated failure to improve the fiscal environment in which energy companies operate; a measure that the  government has repeatedly said is necessary if energy production is to increase .  In June 2021, so