Trinidad and Tobago is a country which has taken part, over the years, in many of the major developments in oil and gas exploration and production since the first wells were drilled there in the nineteenth century and the expansion into deep water is no exception. Despite the fact that its industry is relatively small by international standards and its geology is complex, there has been continuous production from its fields for well over 100 years. The current trend to explore further offshore into deeper waters and exploit the less familiar geological provinces further down the continental slope is no exception. The recent completion of a world class LNG plant and the siting of several petrochemical facilities have provided a ready market for potential gas discoveries as well as oil. Its political, economic and industrial history has brought about an investment climate in which the available infrastructure is already tuned to the petroleum industry and the workforce, compared to the competition, relatively well educated in its ways.. Recent drilling and geophysical studies in comparable areas on the opposite side of the Atlantic provided indications that he chances of major discoveries in the Trinidad and Tobago deeper offshore provinces are good. Detailed studies of the existing geophysical data, extrapolation of the onshore geology and the structures which support the developments in the shallower parts of the Atlantic off the coast of Trinidad confirm such indications. The USGS, in their review of Undiscovered Resources published in June 2000, looked at petroleum systems and basins around the world on a systematic basis and rated highly the Eastern Offshore Province of the East Venezuelan Basin, a large proportion of which is within the national waters of Trinidad and Tobago. The fiscal regime under which any discoveries, especially any major gas finds, would be developed and exploited is currently under review, a process which started last year and was announced in the annual Budget speech. Since then, there has been a change of government. These two factors would normally be considered, if taken at face value, as increasing the uncertainties about the economic regime within which any development would be undertaken. Added to the current uncertainties in prices and market volumes, they might have been a major disincentive to exploration; but the history of the evolution of this tax regime, and the general social stability and the professionalism of the country's civil service would indicate otherwise. The Prime Minister was himself trained as a Petroleum Geologist and both of the leading political parties in Trinidad have repeatedly made clear their understanding of the value of cooperation with the industry on which the country's continuing prosperity depends.
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