Trinidad and Tobago
Guardian
Govt coffers soar on higher energy revenues
GEISHA KOWLESSAR-ALONZO
Energy Minister Stuart Young says he’s expected go to
Cabinet soon on T&T’s deep-water bid round.
An announcement was expected to be made since.
September.
However, Young said while there was a time frame set to
the bid rounds “they have slipped a little bit on it.”
“The evaluation is over and I will be going to Cabinet very
shortly with respect to the recommendations” the minister
said while fielding questions from members of the media
following the launch of the TTEITI State of the Extractive
Sectors Report 2022 yesterday.
And on his recent visits to Washington DC and Venezuela to
allow this country permission for cross-border gas Young
said he made six visits to Washington during this year and
“at least” two visits to Venezuela.
“At the appropriate time once there’s something to be
announced it will be announced,” Young said.
In speaking about the report, Young revealed the five
highest taxpayers for fiscal 2019 to 2020 were BPTT, the
National Gas Company, EOG Resources, BHP now Woodside
and Heritage Petroleum Ltd.
BP paid TT 4.6 billion, NGC $3.5 billion, EOG Resources $2.7
billion, BHP $1.7 billion and Heritage $1.4 billion.
The Energy Minister also noted the TTEITI Independent
Administrator/Auditor (IA) found a TT$33.2 million
difference between what oil and gas companies reported in
payments compared to Government receipts.
The reasons for the differences, he outlined, were foreign
exchange fluctuations, timing differences and unidentified
differences.
Additionally, Young said between 2021 and 2022, royalties
and Government’s share of profit from production sharing
contracts cumulatively increased by 205 percent.
“Royalties increased by 127 percent from TT$1.7 billion in
2021 to TT$3.8 billion in 2022. The share of profit the
country earned from production sharing contracts
increased by 254 per cent from TT$2.7 billion in 2021 to
TT$9.6 billion in 2022,” he detailed.
According to the minister results of “difficult but successful
negotiations” by the Government since 2018, earned $11.4
billion dollars in revenue from 2018 to third quarter 2022.
The report takes an in-depth look at the environmental
laws/ regulations governing the extractive sector.
Young said he’s heartened to hear that the TTEITI has
developed an environmental reporting pilot project, adding
that he understands the NGC is the only company
participating.
“The company will pioneer reporting on environmental
indicators such as their emissions and energy use etc. When
the pilot is completed, before the end of the year, the NGC
would also be the first EITI reporting company in the world
to disclose these indicators under the EITI framework,”
Young added.
Gregory McGuire, Chairman of the TTEITI, also spoke and
emphasised that transparency on an independent
verification of what is earned from T&T’s oil and gas and
minerals resources is of paramount importance.
He said this is critical as this economy seeks to rebuild from
a COVID-19 downturn.
McGuire said citizens must be consistently engaged on
revenue allocation, bills awareness and understanding of
the difficult choices that must be made in satisfying
competing needs of revenue, legitimate choices and
legitimate needs across the board.
Looking forward McGuire said the organisation will focus on
systematic disclosure, moving from one-off reports to
systematically reporting information which will become
available with at source; within the respective ministries
and State enterprises, websites, and not confined to the
TTEITI report.
Focus will also be placed on legislative reform, he said
emphasising that Government support is critical in
enacting enabling legislation and resolving certain legal
barriers that hinder implementation.
“Under current arrangements, companies report their
revenues and other key data to TTEITI on a voluntary basis.
Moreover, the Income Tax Act bars the BIR from disclosing
such tax information to third parties, including the Auditor
General. The data for reconciliation is now obtained
through a time consuming process requiring legal
covenants between the BIR and the companies. This has
been a decade long challenge for us,” McGuire explained.
Photo: BpTT head office Queen’s Park West, Port-of-Spain.
PICTURE ROBERTO CODALLO