Feature Address by the Honourable Minister of Energy and Energy Industries at the presentation of the Gas Audit Results for the year end 2018

Let me provide some additional background on how our relationship with Ryder Scott evolved. Natural Gas Reserve audits were previously undertaken by the Ryder Scott Company for and on behalf of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago during the periods 2000 to 2004, 2006 to 2010 and 2011 to 2015. Ryder Scott was engaged on five (5) year contracts and the previous contract ended in 2016. In 2017, Cabinet granted approval for the Ministry to seek an independent petroleum consultant to undertake annual audits of the non-associated gas reserves for the five year period from year-end 2016 to 2020. Following a highly competitive tender process, a team from the Ministry conducted evaluations and selected the Ryder Scott Company from a field of five (5) prestigious international petroleum consultants that tendered bids. The first two audits of the contract, Year End 2016 and Year End 2017 were completed last year. Year End 2018 is the third audit of the contract…