In this year’s budget, Government announced a tax break for companies undertaking energy audits
and this policy directive will change the way we evaluate not only future but also our past construction
projects.

During the Green Building and Energy Efficiency workshop at the conference there will be vigorous
debate as well as insight shared on steps to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings, new
business opportunities in green building construction and international best practice in energy efficiency
regulation and legislation.

Sponsored by GDF Suez, the workshop will feature facilitator Barry Giles, Past Chairman of the US Green
Building Council Curriculum Committee as well presentations by ACLA Works associate and member of
the Trinidad and Tobago Green Building Council steering committee as well as Greg Upwall, certified
architect and founder of Studio Upwall architecture and consultancy firm.

At the end of the workshop, participants should be equipped with a basic knowledge of the processes
necessary to carry out energy efficiency audits and insight into new trends in green building
construction and certification.

Even with a return to economic growth in the United States, LNG imports will have to compete against new US domestic gas production due to come on-stream over the next few years. The United States Potential Gas Committee has revised its estimates of America’s gas reserves. In June, the Committee has raised its gas reserve estimates by almost 40 percent over its 2006 assessment. The increased estimates are due mainly to improved technology for tapping into shale gas formations. According to
the committee, shale gas accounts for two-thirds of America’s recoverable reserves and are enough to supply the country for 90 years.

At the upcoming Energy Conference, respected LNG analyst Paul Ziff will analyze how North American shale gas will impact on the gas market and by extension Trinidad and Tobago.

A specialist on natural gas industry strategies and upstream corporate performance, Mr. Ziff conceived and directed a wide range of benchmarking studies and consulting projects in upstream corporate performance, now undertaken in over 30 countries worldwide.

In 2011, the local energy services sector can look forward to more activity.

BPTT plans to drill an additional two (moderately extended reach) wells in Savonette, as follow-up to the EMZ-5 well, using the Rowan XL rig. The company has also entered into an conditional agreement with Seadrill for the newbuild semi-tender West Jaya offshore Trinidad and Tobago.

According to Seadrill, West Jaya is currently under construction at Keppel Shipyard in Singapore and delivery is scheduled for the end of March 2011.

The unit will then be transported to Trinidad and Tobago and start-up on the contract with BPTT is expected in early July 2011.

EOG Resources also spud its Block 4(a) in the Toucan field at the start of this year and will be using the HP 203 platform rig.

In other news, Chevron also announced that a 2D high-resolution geophysical and oceanographic survey for pipeline routes from the Loran-Manatee platform is already in progress.

At the energy conference several of the major upstream and downstream energy companies operating in Trinidad and Tobago will highlight all their major planned activity for 2011.

Prior to assuming the role of Regional President, over a period of five years, he held the positions of Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Vice President and Performance Unit Leader, Markets for bpTT. For the three years prior, he served in two BP exploration and production (E&P) segment leadership positions. He was the Commercial Director for the BP Algeria business unit and then the E&P Vice President of Planning.

Norman joined Amoco in 1986 and following a series of financial roles in Amoco’s headquarters in Chicago, he served in commercial leadership roles for three years in Egypt. The end of Norman’s tenure in Egypt coincided with the merger of BP and Amoco in 1999. He then returned to Chicago as a Senior Financial Manager for 18 months before moving to BP’s headquarters in London as an Executive Assistant to Tony Hayward, Group Vice President for Finance at the time.

Norman’s formal educational training has been in finance, strategy, accounting and general
management. He is a Certified Public Accountant (Illinois) and holds an MBA from the niversity of Chicago.

He is married with three children.

Dr Stowe is Executive Director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and Manager of the Harvard Project on Climate Agreements, both University-wide programs based in the Harvard Kennedy School. The Harvard Project identifies and advances scientifically sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic public policy options for addressing global climate change. From December 2003 through June 2009, Dr. Stowe was Associate Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and the Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, both based in the Kennedy School. He has worked in non-profit, academic, and business organizations, including as Vice President of Programs of the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs, which provides assistance in agriculture and agribusiness to developing countries. Dr. Stowe has consulted to the World Bank and other organizations on agricultural management projects in Uganda, Russia, and Ukraine. Rob holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an A.B. in physics from Harvard College.

Indeed, a draft national carbon reduction strategy is being developed by the T&T Government. As part of this strategy, proposals for carbon sale, storage, credit and storage, as well as incentives to attract investment for CCS projects in Trinidad & Tobago should be brought forward.

By becoming CCS technology-ready, Trinidad & Tobago will be positioning itself to take advantage of opportunities that may present themselves in the international market while reducing its own carbon emissions.

View more information about this workshop

The successful bidders were Voyager Energy (Trinidad) Limited and RWE for the NCMA 2 block, Voyager Energy (Trinidad) Limited for the NCMA 3 block, Centrica Energy for NCMA 4, Voyager Energy (Trinidad) Limited for Block 4(b).

No awards were made for the bid by Gulf Central for the North Marine block and BG Trinidad and Tobago for Block 5 (d).

Minister Seepersad-Bachan said successful bidders are required to enter negotiations with the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs to formalize the terms and conditions of the relevant production sharing contracts in accordance with the respective bid offer.

The outcome of this bid round and the deep water bid round is crucial to the medium term growth of the local upstream energy sector. The Energy Chamber is hopeful that the investment into the development of these blocks will act as a spur for greater investment into the country’s most critical sector, the energy sector.

He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Royal Dutch Shell plc, a Non-Executive Director (Vice-Chairman) of Unilever, Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of ING, and a member of the Supervisory Board of Royal Philips Electronics.

He was World President of the Society of Chemical Industry from 2002 to 2004.

Mr. van der Veer joined Shell in 1971 and worked in manufacturing and marketing in the Netherlands, Curacao and the United Kingdom. In 1984, he returned to Shell Nederland as manager of Corporate Planning and then of the Pernis refinery in Rotterdam. After an assignment coordinating Shell businesses in Africa and Canada, he became a Managing Director of Shell Nederland in 1992. He led major reorganisations and a $2 billion upgrade of the Pernis refinery.

In 1995, he moved to the United States as President and Chief Executive of the Shell Chemical Company. He was appointed a Group Managing Director in 1997.

During his time as CEO he led Shell through major change, simplifying governance and organisation, while clarifying accountabilities.

Only last year, he was appointed Vice-Chairman of a group of experts who will draw up recommendations for a new Strategic Concept for NATO.

His special insight into the global energy sector can be of immense value to the local and regional energy sector and any advice he can offer on helping T&T attract investment will be valuable.

The Energy Chamber’s annual Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference is one forum where the leaders of industry, academia and Government assemble and engage in meaningful debate on the various ways in which investment can be leveraged as regional Governments and companies search for new market opportunities and avenues to boost their competitiveness.

Given this outcome there must be concerns about the ability of Trinidad & Tobago to attract the large sustained inflows of capital into the upstream sector that are required to extend our gas reserves and the life of our energy industry. Direct foreign investment into Trinidad & Tobago has significantly declined over the past two years (see box). In part this has been due to the global financial crisis, but developments in the global energy industry over the past few years point to more long-term challenges for the Trinidad & Tobago gas-based upstream sector.

A challenging investment climate

While both gas and oil prices declined significantly in the final quarter of 2008 and the beginning of 2009, oil prices have since recovered to relatively high levels. Gas prices have however remained low, given a combination of continued patchy economic recovery in key markets, the coming on stream of significant new global LNG capacity and the rapid expansion of shale gas. At the same time, the cost base of exploration and development in the upstream sector has remained high: rig rates declined somewhat in mid 2009, but have since then remained at a fairly high level (see graph 1). This introduces significant challenges for the development of financially sustainable new upstream gas projects.

Graph 1 – WTI Crude Oil Price and Henry Hub Prices Compared to Floater Rig Prices

According to International Energy Agency estimates, meeting global energy needs will require US $17 trillion in investment by 2030. In the upstream sector energy sector there is intense competition for capital for new projects. There are some attractive new energy provinces, such as Brazil, Angola, Australia and off-shore West Africa, who are able to pull both the investment dollars and the technical expertise from the major multi-national companies.

Need to attract the major players

Trinidad & Tobago needs to replace 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas every year to fulfill its current LNG, petro-chemical and power-generation commitments. Government has set a target of 100 percent reserves replacement and as such has targeted 10 new exploration wells drilled every year. These wells will demand something in the region of half a billion US dollars in capital expenditure every year.

For the offshore gas sector this level of investment is only going to come from the major established oil and gas companies, able to meet both the technical challenges and the high levels of capital expenditure and the financial risks associated with exploration activity: in this sector it is common to sink US$100 million investment into a well that yields no commercial return. It is only companies with deep pockets and a very sound financial footing that can successfully develop major offshore gas projects.

Onshore oil production in mature provinces, on the other hand, provides significant opportunities for smaller, independent oil and gas companies, including Trinidad & Tobago owned and operated companies. Developing this sector can produce significant returns to Trinidad & Tobago in terms of tax revenue, job and activity for service companies, but will not address the fundamental issue for the sustainability of our gas-based industries.

The Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference 2011: Energy and Investment

Given this challenge the Energy Chamber has decided to focus the upcoming 2011 Trinidad & Tobago Energy Conference on investment in the energy sector. The 2011 Energy Conference will encourage wide debate on the various ways in which investment can be leveraged as regional Governments and companies search for new market opportunities and avenues to boost their competitiveness.

The conference will not just look at the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors but will also examine investments into renewable energy and energy efficiency. It will also consider issues around on-going investments into asset integrity, safety and individual workers competency development. A raft of senior and experienced industry specialists from both Trinidad & Tobago and around the world will address these issues and provide vital information for everyone involved in the energy and related sectors.

Boosting investment is the key to reviving the Trinidad & Tobago energy sector in the short-term and for charting a new more sustainable future in the longer-term.

For more information on the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Conference please visit www.ttenergyconference.org or www.energy.tt call 6-ENERGY or contact Sherwin Long at sherwin@energy.tt

BOX: Foreign Direct Investment in Trinidad and Tobago

The rate of foreign direct investment into Trinidad and Tobago has varied over the past five year period with any spikes and troughs coinciding with the levels of energy sector investment or financial sector mergers/acquisitions.

According to the Central Bank’s Summary of Economic Indicators, in 2004 there was US $973 million of FDI while in 2009 the figure declined to US $511 million.

2009 has seen the lowest FDI over the five year period and between 2008 and 2009, there has been a US $1.3 billion decline in FDI.

Chart 1 – Foreign Direct Investment