News and Articles

(By Nazera Abdul-Haqq, Policy Coordinator, TTEITI Secretariat). Imagine your reaction if you heard that a person holding public office was found to have fraudulently acquired oil, gas or mining contracts by using the name of a company that he or she secretly owns? Or, what if tomorrow’s newspaper headlines read: “Businessman found financing $TT 6 […]

By Victor Hart, Chair TTEITI Steering Committee and EITI Board Member. Introduction For the past three years, the EITI International Board has advocated disclosure of the names of the beneficial owners of oil, gas and mining companies as a further step towards achieving transparency and accountability in the extractive industries. In February 2016, at the […]

The Trinidad and Tobago Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Steering Committee hosted an outreach event in Tobago at the Magdalena Grand on June 28 to spread awareness on issues related to future energy sector projects for Trinidad and Tobago, plans to identify beneficial owners of companies and practical uses of EITI data. Several speakers shared their […]

Trinidad and Tobago’s move to create a Heritage and Stabilisation Fund was driven by the need to provide a cushion to stabilise the economy in times of low energy commodity prices and to provide a vehicle to ensure future generations benefitted from present day energy resource wealth. Government’s recent decision to withdraw $2.5 billion from […]

Introduction Notwithstanding Trinidad and Tobago’s small size, our energy sector is widely recognized as being unique in several important ways because of our pioneering initiatives and innovations introduced over the years. Historians remind us that the beginning of T&T’s energy sector dates back to the discovery of the Pitch Lake by Sir Walter Raleigh in […]

By Victor Hart, Chair TTEITI Steering Committee and International EITI Board Member Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, was among world leaders who addressed the game-changing Anti-Corruption Summit 2016 in London on 12 May.  He pledged this country’s commitment to prosecuting those engaged in acts of corruption, to recovering assets unlawfully gained from […]

In recent days, the headlines of the foreign and local mainstream and social media got a reprieve from terrorist attacks by the breaking news of ‘the Panama Papers’ that overnight turned the Panamanian law firm ‘Mossack Fonseca’ into a household name. Approximately 11.5 million documents were leaked that revealed that the firm had registered annually […]

The Trafigura Group, one of the world’s leading energy commodity trading companies, has committed to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Principles and started publicly disclosing its payments to state energy companies. In 2014, the company formally declared its support of the EITI and issued a ‘Policy on Payments to Governments’ document which was endorsed […]

Introduction Trinidad and Tobago has been a member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) since 2011 and this year was elevated to Compliant Country status. Implementation of the initiative in T&T over five years has exposed certain impediments to the EITI revenue collection and reporting processes and the question is now being asked as […]

By Sherwin Long, Head TTEITI Secretariat and Garik Joseph, Project Officer, TTEITI Secretariat. The Minerals (General) Regulations 2015 document laid in Parliament in June 2015 has not garnered much column space or airtime, having slipped under the radar at a time when the Tenth Parliament was winding down and the country was anticipating the announcement […]

Before oil and gas investors decide to bankroll projects in a country they usually take a piercing look at the prospective country’s fiscal terms, general taxation regime, cost of regulatory compliance, political stability as well as existing initiatives to promote transparency and sound corporate governance. For countries seeking to woo investors, participating in the Extractive […]