Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers says Venezue­lan Vice Pres­i­dent Del­cy Ro­driguez’s query from this coun­try on Exxon Mo­bil’s field tests in an ul­tra-deep­wa­ter area award­ed for ex­plo­ration had no link to re­cent ten­sions be­tween the two na­tions.

The min­is­ter de­nied the claims made in a Reuters re­port re­gard­ing the time­line of events. He said there was no con­nec­tion be­tween the ver­bal ex­changes be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and Venezuela and the de­ci­sion by the Venezue­lan Na­tion­al As­sem­bly to de­clare Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar “per­sona non gra­ta”.

In an ar­ti­cle on Oc­to­ber 28, Reuters re­port­ed that ear­li­er that month, Ro­driguez, Venezuela’s Vice Pres­i­dent and Oil Min­is­ter re­quest­ed in­for­ma­tion on the project’s lo­ca­tion and whether any po­ten­tial dis­cov­er­ies could ex­tend in­to Venezue­lan ter­ri­to­ry.

The ar­ti­cle went on to say that, ac­cord­ing to a diplo­mat­ic note sent to For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sobers, Ro­driguez made the re­quest dur­ing a meet­ing with Trinidad and To­ba­go’s act­ing head of mis­sion in Cara­cas, Dayne-Marc Chin Slick.

How­ev­er, Min­is­ter Sobers clar­i­fied, “Mr Chin Slick had that meet­ing with Mrs Ro­driguez a cou­ple of days af­ter the sign­ing of the agree­ment with Exxon. So, it wasn’t some­thing that is re­cent,” Sobers said.

There was a sig­nif­i­cant Pro­duc­tion Shar­ing Con­tract (PSC) signed be­tween the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Exxon­Mo­bil on Au­gust 12, 2025.

The con­tract is for Block TT Ul­tra Deep 1 (TTUD-1), an ul­tra-deep­wa­ter block off Trinidad’s east coast. The area is mas­sive, cov­er­ing more than 7,000 square kilo­me­tres, which is larg­er than the land­mass of Trinidad and To­ba­go it­self.

The area lies near Venezuela’s mar­itime bor­der and north­west of Guyana’s Stabroek block.

The deal marks Exxon­Mo­bil’s re­turn to T&T af­ter an ab­sence of over 20 years to ex­plore for oil and gas in the ul­tra-deep­wa­ter fron­tier.

Sobers said the diplo­mat­ic note that Reuters re­ferred to was sent “a cou­ple days” af­ter the sign­ing on Au­gust 12, and the meet­ing be­tween Chin Slick and Ro­driguez hap­pened soon af­ter as well.

“So, the Reuters re­port is off in terms of its tim­ing. So, it’s not some­thing that hap­pened yes­ter­day or a cou­ple of days ago in this build-up with re­spect to the (Na­tion­al As­sem­bly) res­o­lu­tion,” Sobers said.

Exxon­Mo­bil is com­mit­ted to in­cur­ring an es­ti­mat­ed US$42.5 mil­lion in the ini­tial phase, which in­cludes ac­quir­ing 3D seis­mic da­ta and oth­er pre-pro­duc­tion com­mit­ments.

If com­mer­cial hy­dro­car­bons are found, the pro­ject­ed de­vel­op­ment cost could range be­tween US$16.4 bil­lion and US$21.7 bil­lion.