After Guyana, Now Trinidad And Tobago: ExxonMobil’s First Real Signal Arrives By End Of August

By NAN Business News Editor, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Weds. August 26, 2026: ExxonMobil is returning to Trinidad and Tobago after more than two decades away, and the first real signal of what it finds arrives by the end of August.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar confirmed that seismic results from Block TTUD-1 are expected within weeks. “I was told that we would get the results by the end of August,” she said. ExxonMobil has been running a 3D seismic survey across roughly 6,000 square kilometers of the ultra-deep water block, located off the country’s east coast in water depths exceeding 2,000 meters.

TTUD-1 combines seven former offshore blocks into one acreage larger than Trinidad and Tobago’s entire land area. ExxonMobil signed the production-sharing contract in August 2025, committing to seismic acquisition followed by at least one exploration well in the first phase. The company hit its own target of launching the seismic program within six months of signing, with acquisition roughly 85% complete by June and expected to wrap by late July.

Occidental Petroleum’s subsidiary, Anadarko Caribbean, later acquired a 10% stake in the block, leaving Exxon as operator with a 90% interest. Persad-Bissessar pointed to that partnership as a signal of confidence in the acreage. “The fact that you brought in a partner with you means something good is happening there,” she told an ExxonMobil representative. “So, you’ve got a partner to invest alongside you.”

A block drawing comparisons to Guyana’s own boom

TTUD-1 sits northwest of Guyana’s Stabroek Block, where Exxon and its partners have made more than 30 discoveries and built one of the world’s fastest-growing oil economies. Industry analysts have compared TTUD-1’s potential to the broader Guyana-Suriname Basin, as well as Ghana’s Tano Basin and offshore Nigeria, other deepwater provinces that have delivered major discoveries in recent years.

For Trinidad and Tobago, a country pursuing new resources as its mature onshore and shallow-water fields decline, the stakes behind the next few weeks are real. A positive seismic read wouldn’t guarantee a discovery, exploration wells still have to confirm what’s actually down there, but it would determine whether Exxon moves forward with drilling at all, and how aggressively.

NewsAmericasNow will continue tracking ExxonMobil’s exploration activity across the Caribbean.