In­ter­est in en­er­gy sec­tor ser­vice providers based in T&T has risen sig­nif­i­cant­ly due to re­newed ac­tiv­i­ty in Venezuela’s nat­ur­al gas fields as well as the con­tin­ued de­vel­op­ment of en­er­gy in­dus­tries in Guyana and Suri­name.

The change in de­mand was ap­par­ent at the Off­shore Tech­nol­o­gy Con­fer­ence (OTC) held in Hous­ton, Texas, from May 4 to May 7.

Ramps Lo­gis­tics host­ed the T&T Pavil­ion at the event. The com­pa­ny con­firmed to the Busi­ness Guardian that the coun­try’s con­tin­gent was in high de­mand dur­ing the con­fer­ence.

The Pavil­ion was a pri­vate-sec­tor-led rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the coun­try’s en­er­gy ser­vices, which fea­tured In­land and Off­shore Con­trac­tors (IO­CL), Tanks-A-Lot, Du­more En­ter­pris­es, Hook­mal­ly, and El Do­ra­do Off­shore.

In a post-event re­port in re­sponse to ques­tions sent by the Busi­ness Guardian, Ramps said, “The re­cep­tion was strongest among com­pa­nies look­ing at the wider Caribbean basin, par­tic­u­lar­ly Guyana, Suri­name, Trinidad and To­ba­go, and po­ten­tial Venezuela-re­lat­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties. Vis­i­tors were not on­ly in­ter­est­ed in T&T as a stand­alone mar­ket, but as a re­gion­al ser­vice base with ex­pe­ri­ence in lo­gis­tics, off­shore sup­port, fab­ri­ca­tion, work­force so­lu­tions, con­trac­tor ser­vices, equip­ment sup­ply, and project ex­e­cu­tion.”

Ramps said the Pavil­ion helped shift the con­ver­sa­tion from vis­i­bil­i­ty to cred­i­bil­i­ty as it al­lowed com­pa­nies to present T&T as a se­ri­ous re­gion­al part­ner, not sim­ply an ex­hibitor pres­ence.

Ramps ex­plained, “Tanks-A-Lot was able to po­si­tion its off­shore car­go car­ry­ing units (CCU) tank, and cut­ting box ca­pa­bil­i­ty. Hook­mal­ly used the Pavil­ion to con­nect with com­pa­nies look­ing at re­gion­al oil and gas ac­tiv­i­ty. El Do­ra­do Off­shore high­light­ed work­force and off­shore sup­port ca­pa­bil­i­ty with­in a wider Caribbean en­er­gy province.

“Du­more en­gaged with emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy and AI-dri­ven oil­field con­ver­sa­tions. IO­CL gained first-hand ex­po­sure to the scale of OTC and the im­por­tance of re­la­tion­ship-build­ing in a glob­al off­shore mar­ket.”

Ramps, which host­ed the T&T Pavil­ion at the event for the fourth con­sec­u­tive year, said the con­nec­tions built re­in­forced the val­ue of cre­at­ing a col­lec­tive na­tion­al plat­form.

The pro­file of the group was bol­stered even fur­ther af­ter Guyana’s Pres­i­dent Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali placed strong em­pha­sis on en­er­gy bal­ance in his open­ing ad­dress. Ali’s speech point­ed to the need for col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween Guyana, Suri­name, Brazil, French Guiana, and oth­er Caribbean oil and gas pro­duc­ers on fu­ture en­er­gy sys­tems.

Dale Lutch­man, vice pres­i­dent, sales & mar­ket­ing at Ramps Lo­gis­tics, said, “Lead­ers, in­clud­ing Dr Mo­hamed Ir­faan Ali, pres­i­dent of the Co-op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana, em­pha­sised that en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, ac­cess to cap­i­tal, and cli­mate re­spon­si­bil­i­ty must evolve to­geth­er. The Caribbean basin, par­tic­u­lar­ly Guyana, T&T, and Suri­name, is unique­ly po­si­tioned to con­tribute, of­fer­ing both re­source po­ten­tial and nat­ur­al ad­van­tages for car­bon man­age­ment with­in an in­creas­ing­ly com­plex glob­al en­er­gy land­scape.”

The Guyana Pres­i­dent’s words di­rect­ly tied in­to the dis­cus­sions held with T&T com­pa­nies con­cern­ing lo­gis­tics sup­port, off­shore equip­ment, work­force so­lu­tions, fab­ri­ca­tion and re­gion­al ex­e­cu­tion across Guyana, Suri­name, T&T and the re­gion as in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies sought trust­ed re­gion­al part­ners who un­der­stand how to op­er­ate in Caribbean and South Amer­i­can en­er­gy mar­kets.

Ramps said, “The im­me­di­ate im­pact is mar­ket ac­cess. T&T com­pa­nies that build re­la­tion­ships at OTC can po­si­tion them­selves for work be­yond the do­mes­tic en­er­gy sec­tor, in­clud­ing Guyana, Suri­name and oth­er re­gion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties. That has sev­er­al po­ten­tial ben­e­fits for the lo­cal en­er­gy sec­tor. It can cre­ate new rev­enue streams for lo­cal com­pa­nies, sup­port job re­ten­tion and growth, strength­en ex­port ca­pa­bil­i­ty, and keep Trinidad and To­ba­go’s tech­ni­cal ex­per­tise rel­e­vant in a chang­ing re­gion­al mar­ket.”

The com­pa­ny said mak­ing these con­nec­tions at this point was cru­cial giv­en the rapid progress in the Guyana-Suri­name Basin and de­mand for their ex­per­tise as a re­sult.

Khaalid Ali, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Hook­mal­ly, said at the event, “With ac­tiv­i­ty de­vel­op­ing across T&T, Guyana, Suri­name, and Venezuela, the re­gion is be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant to the glob­al en­er­gy con­ver­sa­tion.

“For com­pa­nies like Hook­mal­ly, be­ing part of the T&T Pavil­ion cre­ates ac­cess to new ven­dors, clients, and busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties while re­in­forc­ing the val­ue of Caribbean com­pa­nies com­ing to­geth­er on a glob­al stage.”

Ramps said with this recog­ni­tion, the role of the Pavil­ion shift­ed from at­tempt­ing to bring vis­i­bil­i­ty to T&T to “po­si­tion­ing how T&T com­pa­nies can sup­port re­gion­al en­er­gy de­vel­op­ment, how the Caribbean fits in­to glob­al en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, and how en­er­gy bal­ance is be­com­ing a prac­ti­cal busi­ness is­sue.”

Mem­bers of the T&T con­tin­gent stat­ed that the ex­pe­ri­ence, while pro­duc­tive in terms of busi­ness ne­go­ti­a­tions, was al­so eye-open­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly for first-time at­ten­dees.

“At­tend­ing OTC for the first time high­lights just how crit­i­cal con­nec­tion and vis­i­bil­i­ty are with­in the off­shore en­er­gy sec­tor. The abil­i­ty to en­gage di­rect­ly with clients, sup­pli­ers, and in­dus­try peers re­in­forces the im­por­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion in a mar­ket that is be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly glob­al and com­pet­i­tive, said Shaleeza Dook­ie, con­tracts of­fi­cer, for In­land and Off­shore Con­trac­tors Ltd, “Dis­cus­sions, in­clud­ing those led by Pres­i­dent Ir­faan Ali, un­der­scored the need for deep­er un­der­stand­ing of evolv­ing en­er­gy de­mands and re­gion­al op­por­tu­ni­ties. For Caribbean-based com­pa­nies, it is a re­minder that even small is­land play­ers have a mean­ing­ful role to play in a rapid­ly ex­pand­ing and in­ter­con­nect­ed en­er­gy land­scape.”

Sarona Sama­roo, vice pres­i­dent, El Do­ra­do Off­shore, said, “OTC 2026 is show­ing a clear shift in the glob­al en­er­gy land­scape, with the Caribbean emerg­ing as a more vis­i­ble and col­lab­o­ra­tive force.

“The pres­ence of the T&T Pavil­ion along­side the Guyana Pavil­ion re­flects a re­gion po­si­tion­ing it­self as a se­ri­ous en­er­gy province, with strengths across pro­duc­tion, fab­ri­ca­tion, lo­gis­tics, ex­plo­ration, and off­shore sup­port ser­vices. What stands out is the unit­ed front be­ing built among Guyana, Suri­name, and T&T as the re­gion ex­pands its role in serv­ing the glob­al en­er­gy sec­tor.”

An­tho­ny Ram­dani, sales and ma­te­ri­als man­ag­er, Du­more En­ter­pris­es, added, “Day one at OTC 2026 has re­in­forced how quick­ly the off­shore en­er­gy sec­tor is evolv­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly with the grow­ing role of AI in oil­field op­er­a­tions. The con­ver­sa­tions on the show floor have opened new per­spec­tives on how tech­nol­o­gy, ef­fi­cien­cy, and field ex­e­cu­tion are be­com­ing more close­ly con­nect­ed.”

Paul Si­mon, fab­ri­ca­tion su­per­vi­sor and projects man­ag­er, Tanks-A-Lot, said, “OTC 2026 is an im­por­tant plat­form for ex­pand­ing in­dus­try con­nec­tions and strength­en­ing our foot­print across the off­shore en­er­gy sec­tor.”

Ramps said while the out­look from OTC was pos­i­tive, there was a need for lo­cal com­pa­nies to prop­er­ly fol­low-through to max­imise the mo­men­tum.

“For com­pa­nies in­volved in the T&T Pavil­ion, the next step is con­vert­ing OTC vis­i­bil­i­ty in­to meet­ings, pro­pos­als, part­ner­ships, ven­dor reg­is­tra­tion, and ac­tive mar­ket de­vel­op­ment. The op­por­tu­ni­ty is there. Re­gion­al off­shore ac­tiv­i­ty is ex­pand­ing, and in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­nies are look­ing for ca­pa­ble part­ners with lo­cal knowl­edge, tech­ni­cal ex­pe­ri­ence, and the abil­i­ty to ex­e­cute,” Ramps stat­ed in the re­port.