Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal is urging Shell Trinidad and Tobago to ramp up production in its Manatee gas project, as the country continues to grapple with a critical natural gas shortage.
“I am very pleased with the progress Shell is making with the Manatee project,” Moonilal said in a media release. “The most recent development is the arrival in the country of the MV Vox Amalia hopper dredger which will conduct trenching operations for a component of the Manatee pipeline.”
Trenching and other preparatory works are currently underway in Guayaguayare as the Government pushes forward with the long-anticipated offshore development.
Moonilal traced the project’s roots back to a 2003 agreement between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, aimed at managing cross-border hydrocarbon reservoirs. That agreement evolved into more specific treaties under the former People’s Partnership administration.
“In August 2010 and in February 2015, the Partnership Government led by Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar signed field-specific treaties for the Loran-Manatee and Manakin-Cocuina cross-border fields respectively,” Moonilal noted. “This was an important step towards the development of the Manatee project.”
Eventually, the Manatee field was de-unitised, allowing it to be developed independently under a production sharing contract with Shell and the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries (MEEI).
The Minister emphasized the project’s strategic importance in addressing gas supply issues that have hindered the local economy.
“The Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries is very focused on working with Shell to ensure the safe delivery of the Manatee project and first gas by 2027,” he said. “This is an important step to right-siding the shortage of natural gas that we inherited in April 2025.”
He ended with a clear directive: “Given the gas crisis we inherited, in the coming months, we will be working with Shell to see if there are opportunities to increase the volumes of gas Manatee can bring to the Trinidad and Tobago economy.”
