@granite
My company and our Engineers are part of that Exxon seismic project .Its similar to the oil bearing sandstone in Guyana , expectation millions of barrels of oil and natural gas are in this formation that runs for a few hundred kilometers. Four separate sand stone formations has been noted. Expectations:Galeota crude
Galeota crude
Galeota Crude Deserves More Than a Footnote in Our Energy Debate
For a country that has built so much of its modern economy on petroleum, Trinidad and Tobago is oddly selective about which resources get the spotlight. We talk endlessly about output figures, quarterly revenues, and global prices, but far less about the specific assets that keep the entire machine running. Galeota crude should not be treated as just another line item. It is one of the country’s major reserves, widely regarded as the third-largest discovery after Ufa and Narfas, and it deserves a more serious place in the national conversation about energy, value, and long-term planning.
Galeota crude comes from the Galeota Field in the Gulf of Paria, close to our coastline, a geographic advantage that should translate into operational efficiency and strategic importance. Its production has involved surface-mining and drilling approaches, including hand drilling and mechanical drilling, and after extraction it moves to refineries where it becomes the fuels and materials that quietly power daily life: gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, lubricants, and asphalt. In other words, Galeota isn’t abstract. It is roads, transport, commerce, and industry.
What makes Galeota especially noteworthy, however, is that it doesn’t fit neatly into the simplistic labels we often use in public discussion. It is a blended crude, heavy, medium, and light oils combined from the same field. Yet, despite this mixture, Galeota is often described as a light crude because it has relatively low viscosity, lighter colour, and lower sulfur content. Those characteristics matter. Lower sulfur and lighter properties can mean fewer refining complications and, in many markets, more attractive economics. When people argue that “oil is oil,” they miss the point: quality and composition shape profitability, processing costs, and competitiveness.
And still, the question remains: are we treating this resource with the strategic seriousness it demands?
The Galeota reservoir itself is not a single pool but a system comprising three sub-reservoirs, Upper, Central, and Lower. That layered structure is a reminder that petroleum development is not just about pumping and selling. It requires management, investment, and competence over time. Fields like Galeota reward countries that plan; they punish those that drift.
The price snapshot from 2018, an average of US$73.85, offers another lesson. Oil prices rise and fall, sometimes dramatically, and national budgeting can’t keep behaving like the good years are guaranteed. When prices are strong, the temptation is always to celebrate and spend. When prices soften, we scramble. A resource like Galeota should push us toward a steadier approach: maximize value when conditions are favorable, but design policy for resilience when they are not.
None of this is an argument for blind dependence on oil. If anything, it’s the opposite. The more significant a resource is, the less we can afford to manage it casually. If Galeota crude is going to continue contributing to national revenue and refined products, then the public deserves clear answers about how it is being developed, what standards guide its extraction and refining, and how its earnings are being converted into lasting national benefits, education, infrastructure, diversification, and a realistic energy transition.
Because the real scandal wouldn’t be that Galeota exists. The real scandal would be having an asset of that scale and uniqueness, and still failing to turn it into durable progress.
A synopsis of a paper I wrote a decade plus ago. Before AI and ghostwriters
Sarge
