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This has been an unprecedented time for Trinidad and Tobago, the world and indeed the global oil industry. Heritage Petroleum Company Limited has not been insulated from all that is occurring. The precipitous drop in the world’s demand for oil and gas and the accompanying slowdown of economic activity due to COVID-19 also came with a simultaneous increase in supply as a result of the recent price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.
BPTT has created a $1 million COVID-19 response fund accessible to non-governmental and community-based organisations (NGOs and CBOs) to complement the government’s social relief programmes.
Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited (TPHL) announced that it, along with its subsidiaries handed over the Augustus Long Hospital and Hostel to the Ministry of Health. The readiness of the Augustus Long Hospital now adds approximately 60 beds to the fight of the pandemic.
CARPHA: Call for Experts
BHP Trinidad and Tobago announces a TT$ 3.35 million dollar contribution (three point three five million dollars) in equipment and services to support the country’s COVID 19 response. BHP’s commitment to Social Value investment ensures a continued focus on contributing to Trinidad and Tobago’s communities, through resource development, economic contribution and social support.
BHP Petroleum is implementing emergency measures to support cash flow to suppliers by making immediate payments of outstanding invoices and moving to seven-day payment terms for the next six months for small and local businesses that support BHP’s Petroleum business. This is a reduction from the current payment terms and covers over 200 suppliers. The revised payment term arrangements will take effect in the week commencing April 13th.
Shell has released its Report on Payments to Governments 2019. According to the report, Shell in total paid the government of T&T 1.2b TTD in 2019 ($189m USD). The report shows that the company paid USD$76.9m in production entitlements, USD$12.1m in taxes, USD$3.9m in royalties, USD$85m in bonuses, USD$11m in fees.
The latest report says that it estimates that oil demand destruction in April could amount to 27 million barrels per day, of which nearly 5 million barrels per day will come from the three largest consumers; China, Japan and India.
Information on VAT Bonds
The company however has stated that it awaits government approval to proceed with a third production vessel for the Payara development. As a result, some 2020 activities are now being deferred, creating a potential delay in production startup of six to 12 months.
An Energy Chamber survey of our members shows that companies are only sending the most essential front line workers to job sites.
Columbus Energy told investors that it looks forward to the next stage of continuous gas injection at the Inniss-Trinity project, in Trinidad. Inniss-Trinity is being progressed as a pilot project, testing enhanced oil recovery within a mature field by Columbus Energy with partner Predator Oil and Gas.
Apache Corporation announced a significant oil discovery at the Sapakara West-1 well drilled offshore Suriname on Block 58. The well was drilled using the Noble Sam Croft with Apache as operator holding a 50% working interest and Total holding a 50% working interest.
Exxon Request for Information: Personal protective equipment
Exxon Request for Information: Safety, Security, HSE Training Services
According to energy research company Rystad Energy, (globally) more than a million jobs in the oilfield service industry are likely to be cut in 2020 due to low project volumes.
Banking sector responses to COVID-19
The Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago has been constantly monitoring guidelines and updates related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and has sought to put the best measures in place to mitigate risks to our employees and persons visiting our offices. As such we have taken the decision to suspend normal operations at the Centre until 1st April 2020.
The Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago welcomes the short-term policy measures that have been enacted by the Government and the Central Bank and commends the response by the banking sector to implement new policies and procedures that will assist both individuals and companies in these extremely difficult circumstances. We have seen a vital part of the private sector, both local and foreign, stepping forward to help the nation through this difficult time. Access to liquidity will be essential for most companies during this crisis period, when their revenue is likely to be very significantly reduced. If companies are to be able to meet the common objective of preserving jobs, many will need liquidity support just to meet their payroll costs.
The 2019 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Competitive Index (GCI) ranking for Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) dropped by one (1) place at 79/141 countries when compared to 2018. This places T&T in the bottom 50th percentile. One of the reasons for low competitiveness lies in the low innovation capacity and dynamism of our businesses. T&T’s ranking of 87 for Business Dynamism (BD) is relatively low for a high income (GNI per capita) country (i.e. well above the trend line of income vs GCI rank). From the chart below one can see countries with similar income to T&T e.g. Panama and Latvia with higher BD rankings than T&T. More interestingly are lower income countries that have much better BD rankings e.g. Jamaica (33rd) and Rwanda (46th, whose Government launched an innovation fund in 2018). In this context, the narrative of Business Transformation (BT) arises i.e. the evolution or revolution of the business model.
