From gas-fired power generation and natural gas processing to petrochemicals, fertilizer production and sustained upstream investment, Trinidad has spent five decades building an industrial economy around natural gas. Its experience offers lessons for Guyana as it looks to reduce electricity costs, strengthen energy security and use domestic gas to support new industries.

The two countries have already begun strengthening that relationship. An April 2026 bilateral agreement covering energy integration, technology transfer and human capital development provides a framework for Guyana to draw on Trinidad and Tobago’s technical and industrial experience.

Guyana Builds the Foundation

Guyana is laying the groundwork through its flagship Gas-to-Energy (GtE) project, comprising a 300 MW combined-cycle power plant, an NGL facility and transmission infrastructure. Approximately 50 million cubic feet of gas per day will be supplied from the ExxonMobil-operated Liza field through a 225-kilometer subsea pipeline to Wales.

The project is designed to reduce electricity costs and improve grid reliability while creating a foundation for greater domestic gas utilization and downstream development.

The next phase is already taking shape. Gas from the Hammerhead development, expected to begin production in 2029, is planned to supply an additional 75 million cubic feet per day to support a second 300 MW power plant, expanded NGL production and broader domestic gas utilization. The strategy points to an increasingly deliberate effort to use natural gas as a platform for industrial growth rather than simply as an export commodity.

Trinidad Shows What Comes Next

Trinidad and Tobago provides a longer-term model for what could follow. Over five decades, the country has built an industrial ecosystem around natural gas, combining LNG exports with petrochemicals, ammonia, methanol, fertilizer manufacturing, steel production and gas-fired electricity generation.

Natural gas underpins almost all of Trinidad and Tobago’s electricity generation, with combined-cycle power plants including the 720 MW Union Estate Power Station, 225 MW Trinity Power Plant and 65 MW Cove Power Station. For Guyana, the lesson extends beyond electricity: reliable, competitively priced gas can support mining, manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries.

The country’s gas-processing infrastructure offers another point of comparison. Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited’s complex at the Port of Savonetta has processing capacity of almost 2 billion cubic feet per day and output of around 70,000 barrels per day of natural gas liquids. Alongside more than 11 ammonia plants and seven methanol plants, Trinidad’s downstream sector demonstrates how gas can be converted into higher-value industrial products rather than exported in its raw form.

Keeping the Gas Economy Supplied

The Trinidadian experience also highlights a less visible requirement of a successful gas economy: continued upstream investment. Despite decades of production, Trinidad continues to pursue new exploration and development to maintain future supply. bp’s Ginger and Mento developments, together with Shell’s Manatee and Aphrodite fields, are expected to support production growth from 2027, while ongoing exploration could unlock nearly 60 tcf of additional natural gas resources.

For Guyana, the parallel is clear. Building downstream infrastructure creates demand, but maintaining a reliable domestic gas supply requires continued exploration and development. Pairing upstream investment with downstream expansion could allow Guyana to support industrial demand while strengthening the long-term resilience of its gas sector.

Building the Workforce Behind the Opportunity

Infrastructure and investment alone will not determine whether Guyana can build a competitive gas economy. Trinidad and Tobago’s experience also points to the importance of developing a workforce capable of operating increasingly sophisticated energy and industrial assets.

Institutions including the National Energy Skills Center, the University of Trinidad and Tobago and The UWI St. Augustine Campus have helped build the technical capabilities supporting Trinidad’s energy industry. As Guyana expands technical training alongside its rapidly growing oil and gas sector, investment in engineering, vocational education and workforce development will become increasingly important.

From Gas Production to a Gas Economy

How Guyana translates its gas resources into broader industrial development will be a key theme at Caribbean Energy Week (CEW) 2027, where stakeholders from across the region will examine how connectivity, knowledge sharing and cross-border cooperation can build a more integrated Caribbean energy market.

The CEW 2027 Guyana in-country launch on September 1, 2026, will bring Guyanese and regional policymakers, operators, investors and service providers together to examine the opportunities emerging around gas commercialization, downstream investment and workforce development. The broader CEW 2027 program will extend that conversation across the region, including knowledge-sharing and collaboration with Trinidad and Tobago, under the theme Unlocking the Caribbean Energy Corridor: Oil, Gas, LNG & Investment for a New Global Hub.

For Guyana, the opportunity is no longer simply to produce gas, but to build an economy around it – and regional cooperation can help accelerate that transition.

To register for the CEW 2027 Guyana in-country launch, visit https://hubs.la/Q04pC0Fp0.