Barbados closed the pre-qualification stage of its 2026 Offshore Direct Negotiations on September 1 after receiving six applications from prospective operators and participants. The government has since approved one application as an operator and reserved three blocks – Flying Fish, Manjak and Oistins – for exclusive negotiations. The names of the applicants remain confidential until a successful award, according to the Ministry of Energy, Business Development and Consumer Affairs. Five other applications remained under review as of September 9.

The licensing program covers 19 offshore blocks across Barbados’ shelf and deepwater acreage, including three newly established ultra-deepwater blocks – Windmill, Landship and Culpepper – as well as Oistins, which was withheld from previous licensing campaigns. Barbados’ Offshore Petroleum Act allows exploration licences to run for a period of up to eight years, although the specific exploration period is to be set in the relevant licensing process.

The acreage has attracted attention because seismic interpretations released by the Barbadian government indicate the potential for more than 13 billion barrels of oil and more than 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in place. Those figures are potential resource estimates, not proven reserves or discovered commercial resources, and their commercial viability would have to be established through exploration and appraisal drilling.

Trinidad and Tobago, meanwhile, is advancing activity across both development drilling and existing producing assets. Touchstone Exploration’s September 14 operational update said construction of two drilling locations on its WD-4 block had been completed and a rig had been mobilized for a two-well development campaign, with the first well expected to spud in mid-September. The wells are commitment wells under Touchstone’s WD-4 Lease Operatorship Agreement and are targeting additional oil production.

The company is also working to improve output from existing assets. In the Ortoire Block, a solvent-squeeze treatment at the Cascadura-2ST1 well delivered what Touchstone described as promising incremental production gains, while workovers at Cascadura-3ST1 and a recompletion at Cascadura-5 are planned for October. The Cascadura booster compressor, which began operating in July, is also being optimized to support increased gas throughput.

The activity illustrates the different stages of the Caribbean’s upstream opportunity, from Barbados’ frontier offshore acreage to drilling, workovers and production optimization in Trinidad and Tobago. The latter also has an established gas-based industrial sector, with natural gas feeding power generation and petrochemical production, including ammonia and methanol facilities.

These developments will form part of the wider investment conversation at Caribbean Energy Week (CEW) 2027, taking place in Georgetown, Guyana, from July 13-15 under the theme, “Unlocking the Caribbean Energy Corridor: Oil, Gas, LNG & Investment for a New Global Hub.” The event will bring together governments, energy companies, investors and service providers to examine opportunities across Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the wider Caribbean, with a focus on regional integration, infrastructure and capital deployment.

As Guyana’s rapid production growth reshapes the region’s energy landscape, developments in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago add further depth to the Caribbean’s upstream proposition – combining new acreage and frontier exploration with established production, drilling and gas infrastructure.