By Alicia Chamely
GUYANA’S Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharat, says leveraging Trinidad and Tobago’s experience and capacity is crucial to developing Guyana’s oil and gas sector.
Bharat said Guyana has been engaging T&T to explore restarting the Guaracara refinery. He spoke on Friday during a roundtable discussion at the 2026 Guyana Energy Conference & Supply Chain Expo, shortly after Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Dr Roodal Moonilal, announced a joint effort between the two countries to reopen the mothballed facility.
Acknowledging T&T’s century of experience in the energy sector, Bharat said: “With that comes a lot of experience. It comes with a lot of infrastructure that’s already built out, a lot of capacity that they would have had in the country, and that, I believe, is something that Guyana and Suriname could draw on.”
“Definitely, in terms of collaboration, we’ll have to look at capacity building, drawing from each other’s experience, which is very critical,” he added.
Referring to Moonilal’s proposal for CARICOM energy producers to meet regularly, Bharat said it was “critical and important” for regional cooperation. He also described the refinery as important for Trinidad and Tobago, including for “a turnaround in the sector, creating jobs and stimulating economic activity.”
Bharat said Guyana has already begun discussions with T&T on restarting the refinery and on attracting investors, including those already operating in Guyana, to participate.
“We have held several meetings at that level yesterday, and we have a few more set up today so that we can look at ways in which we can forge greater cooperation and collaboration,” he said.
Bharat added that collaboration among Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago was important not only for each country’s economy, but for CARICOM’s as a whole.
“When Trinidad does well, CARICOM does well. When Guyana does well, CARICOM does well. When Suriname does well, CARICOM will do well,” he said.
During his address at the conference, Moonilal said: “We are indeed encouraged to work with the Government of Guyana and other delegates, and other entities present at this Energy Conference to advance the reopening of the refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad and Tobago.”
Speaking to local media on the sidelines of the event, Moonilal said a restarted refinery could supply Guyana, Suriname and the wider CARICOM market with refined products, including diesel, gasoline and aviation fuel.
“The objective here is really to get a win-win situation, where Trinidad and Tobago win with a restart of a refinery, and Guyana wins because they get the product,” he said.
