Energy ministers meet U.S. envoy to strengthen bilateral ties

En­er­gy co­op­er­a­tion, in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment were among the key is­sues dis­cussed when se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials met with rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Unit­ed States Em­bassy in Port-of-Spain ear­li­er this week.

Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Dr Roodal Mooni­lal and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Ernesto Ke­sar held talks with a del­e­ga­tion led by Unit­ed States Chargé d'Af­faires Philip Kern at the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries' In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex head­quar­ters on Mon­day.

Al­so at­tend­ing the meet­ing were Act­ing Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Karin­sa Tulsie, Act­ing Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Ava Ma­habir-Dass, En­er­gy Re­la­tions and In­ter­na­tion­al Af­fairs Ad­vi­sor Sheena Go­sine and Eco­nom­ic Unit Chief at the Unit­ed States Em­bassy Jef­frey Cern­yar.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, the dis­cus­sions reaf­firmed the long­stand­ing bi­lat­er­al re­la­tion­ship be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States, with a fo­cus on po­lit­i­cal co­op­er­a­tion, en­er­gy and eco­nom­ic se­cu­ri­ty, as well as trade and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties.

Kern said the cur­rent re­la­tion­ship be­tween the two coun­tries rep­re­sents a unique mo­ment in their shared his­to­ry, high­light­ing sev­er­al ar­eas of mu­tu­al ben­e­fit and sig­nif­i­cant op­por­tu­ni­ties for ex­pand­ed col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Mooni­lal reaf­firmed the Gov­ern­ment's com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing an open and con­struc­tive part­ner­ship with the Unit­ed States through con­tin­ued di­a­logue, co­op­er­a­tion and the ex­change of ideas.

He said this ap­proach re­flects the Gov­ern­ment's broad­er com­mit­ment to in­ter­na­tion­al en­gage­ment un­der the lead­er­ship of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

The meet­ing al­so ex­am­ined re­cent­ly signed Mem­o­ran­da of Un­der­stand­ing for the pro­posed de­vel­op­ment of da­ta cen­tres and a steel plant in Trinidad and To­ba­go. The min­istry said these ini­tia­tives form part of the Gov­ern­ment's wider na­tion­al re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion pro­gramme aimed at stim­u­lat­ing eco­nom­ic growth and at­tract­ing in­vest­ment.

Mooni­lal out­lined the Gov­ern­ment's plans to re­vi­talise the en­er­gy sec­tor by in­creas­ing ex­plo­ration and pro­duc­tion while ex­pand­ing val­ue-added ac­tiv­i­ties across the in­dus­try.

He said Trinidad and To­ba­go re­mains open to re­spon­si­ble in­vest­ment that sup­ports in­creased oil and nat­ur­al gas pro­duc­tion, im­proves pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and en­hances oil re­cov­ery.

Mooni­lal al­so iden­ti­fied in­vest­ment in restart­ing the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery and ex­pand­ing down­stream in­dus­tries as pri­or­i­ties for the Gov­ern­ment as it seeks to strength­en the coun­try's en­er­gy sec­tor.

The meet­ing con­clud­ed with both sides reaf­firm­ing their com­mit­ment to main­tain­ing reg­u­lar di­a­logue and work­ing to­geth­er to ad­vance shared ob­jec­tives in en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty, trade, in­vest­ment and broad­er eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment.