The much-anticipated US$1.4 million Natural Gas Master Plan is nearing completion and will soon be made public by Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine.
This was revealed by President of the National Gas Company (NGC) Indar Maharaj as he fielded questions from reporters during a tour of the energy company's Point Lisas facilities.
Maharaj said the plan, which covers the period 2014 to 2025, will determine policies for gas-based industrialisation.
"While I was able to get a view of the preliminary findings of the plan, I am not at liberty at this point to discuss the details of it. I think the minister will want to lay that in the appropriate forum," he said.
Boasting that NGC's profit before tax in 2013 was $9.7 billion, Maharaj said NGC is being developed into a global investor.
"We have moved away from being a pure gas company to something that is diversified albeit still within the energy sector. In 2013 our total contribution to the economy was $7 billion. Our asset base stands at US$7 billion which makes us the largest energy company in the country, Caribbean and Latin America."
Elaborating on plans for external investment, Maharaj said since September last year a group of T&T nationals have been training to embrace global opportunities.
On the matter of finding new gas to continue development in T&T, Maharaj said old gas fields are being explored using new technology.
"We also have unexplored areas and the Ministry of Energy has been aggressively marketing and licensing out unexplored blocks," he explained, adding that major multinational companies involved in exploration and production will not bid for these blocks unless there is a realistic chance of getting oil and gas.
Maharaj said there is also potential in the cross border fields between Trinidad and Venezuela.
"We are very optimistic that this will add tremendously to our current reserves of available gas," he said.