Trinidad and Tobago is ready to partner with Suriname and the wider Caribbean to forge a collective new dawn in Caribbean energy, president of National Energy Dr Vernon Paltoo told the Suriname Energy Oil and Gas Summit last week.
“By working together, we will be able to get there faster, we will be able to get there more effectively and get the benefits back to our people in a much more efficient and quicker timeframe when we work together as a region,” Paltoo said.
He said capacity building, knowledge exchange, and clean energy development are essential building blocks to ensuring food and energy security, as well as economic growth for individuals, countries, and the region as a whole.
“We can do this on our own as individual countries, but by working together, we get there a lot faster. We are here; Trinidad and Tobago stands ready to partner with Suriname as we move together towards a new dawn,” he said.
Paltoo said Suriname could benefit from Trinidad and Tobago’s century-long experience in the energy sector.
“While T&T, where we are now, took 130 years—and we expect to have a sustainable diversified green hydrogen economy complemented by fossil fuels by 2025—Suriname can get there in 25 years,” Paltoo said.
He lauded Suriname’s “strong institutions”, such as Staatsolie, for laying the groundwork for this transformation.
Paltoo said oil and gas are expected to continue playing a significant role in shaping the global energy industry for decades to come.
“It will range between 40-60%; but what is more important in absolute terms the actual quantity of natural gas required as we develop the energy sector on a global basis is actually projected to increase, depending on the scenario that we use in going forward toward 2050,” he said.
While renewable energy sources in Latin America and the Caribbean are poised to play a key role in the region’s energy transformation, Paltoo said that natural gas would remain crucial.
He said that since the Covid-19 pandemic, GDP across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has grown by 2–3% annually.
More impressively, the Caribbean region has seen GDP growth of over 10% per year, Paltoo said.
This, he said, was driven largely by the energy boom in Guyana.
Suriname is expected to follow closely, contributing to continued strong economic momentum, Paltoo said.
“The fact that our region expects increasing GDP—10% year on year—means that we will need increased power availability more than 10% year on year. Probably as much as 15%; and this was particularly important for Suriname, where we expect that your GDP will be growing by far more than 10% per year in the next decade or so,” Paltoo said.
He added that this economic trajectory aligns with the emergence of Suriname and Guyana as energy super-producers.
Paltoo also stressed the importance of investing in human capital.
“I cannot understate the importance of that. Many of you all would have heard me say already that the county’s people are its most valuable resources. It is more important than any natural resource we have, so by investing in our people, we ensure sustainability and continuity of our industry and in essence we are future-proofing our industry by investing in our people,” Paltoo said.
