As Perenco has bought offshore oil and gas producing assets from Woodside Energy - there is now a war of words between Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal and former Energy Minister Stuart Young about a price matrix for a Woodside gas project.
The matter involves whether what the Government says is an error could have cost this country some $7 billion in revenue.
00:00On Friday, the Energy Ministry announced that the government welcomed the completion of Parenko's acquisition of the Greater Angostura-producing oil and gas assets and associated production facilities from Woodside Energy in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:14The ministry said this positions Parenko among the top three producers of natural gas production in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:22However, during the post-Cabinet media briefing on Thursday evening, Energy Minister Dr. Rudal Munilal spoke about what he identified as an amendment to a production-sharing contract regarding a particular block awarded to Woodside Energy, which he said had intended to partner with BP on that gas project.
00:41The Energy Minister said it had been approved by the cabinet of the former PNM-led government in January of this year, 2025.
00:48It was only discovered in April 2025 that the note taken to cabinet and approved contained a detrimental matrix involving costing and returns to the government and the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:05Dr. Munilal said the new UNC-led government took action following its victory in the 2025 general election on April 28th.
01:14If we did not act today, the country stood to lose, in terms of revenue, $6.7 billion Trinidad and Tobago dollars because of the note taken by Mr. Stuart Young.
01:28Ladies and gentlemen, it is amazing to note that this mistake was actually picked up by the contractor, Woodside Energy, and brought to the attention of our government.
01:42On Friday, former Energy Minister and now Opposition MP, Young, said in a Facebook post that he does not know what are the specifics that Minister Munilal is referring to, but he is confident it was not due to any error on the part of the cabinet nor himself.
01:59I have asked incidentally for a complete investigation by the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries as to how an error, a mistake, a miscalculation could take place with a pricing matrix that allows a government to lose a billion United States dollars, almost 7 billion Trinidad and Tobago dollars in the life of a project.
02:22MP Young said the pricing matrix would be a complex formula that seeks to share profits made from the gas produced at varying global gas prices after deducting the recovery of costs and fiscal terms.
02:38The Opposition MP further said this was all negotiated by the Ministry of Energy's very competent technical staff who would have prepared the cabinet note and production sharing contract.
02:49On Thursday, Minister Munilal announced...
02:52Today we approved a new natural gas price class structure and matrix that gave the government of Trinidad and Tobago, at the lowest end, 10% increase and at the highest end, 20% increase in our revenue from that particular project.
03:09It amounts roughly, by the calculations of those at the Ministry, to be a billion United States dollars over the life of the project.
03:20MP Young described as pathetic, Minister Munilal's claim that the new UNC-led government has recovered revenue.
03:27The Opposition MP said the project, which the production sharing contract refers to, has not even been sanctioned, and that Woodside and BP have not taken a decision to produce this block.
03:38MP Young called on Minister Munilal to state if Woodside are still pursuing the deepwater project, Calypso, or if they are preparing to shut down their operations and depart Trinidad and Tobago.
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