Category: CANA News

BP has agreed to acquire Woodside Energy’s 70 per cent interest in Block TTDAA 14, the Calypso gas project in Trinidad and Tobago, increasing it stake to 100 per cent and assuming operatorship.

Calypso is an early-stage deepwater natural gas project offshore Trinidad and Tobago, where BP has an established business and extensive oil and gas infrastructure. It is the largest supplier of gas to the domestic market and has a 45 per cent stake in the Atlantic LNG facility off Trinidad’s southwest coast. ‘By building on the strengths of our existing operations and infrastructure, we have the potential to unlock new production and support long-term growth in the region,’ said Gordon Birrell, BP’s executive vice president, Upstream.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2026 and is subject to approval by the government and regulators.

Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago’s crude oil and condensate production averaged 54,209 barrels per day during the first three months of this year, according to data from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries’ Monthly Consolidated Bulletin.

It shows production averaged 54,052 barrels per day in January, rose to 55,244 barrels per day in February and moderated to 53,431 barrels per day in March.

The first-quarter average was 427 barrels per day, or 0.8 per cent, above the 2025 annual average of 53,782 barrels per day. Compared with the first quarter of 2025, production increased by approximately 2,447 barrels per day, or 4.7 per cent.

The improvement during the first quarter of 2026 was led by stronger production from EOG Resources, Perenco and bpTT.

EOG recorded the largest year-on-year increase. The company’s crude and condensate production averaged 3,821 barrels per day during the first three months of 2026, compared with approximately 1,773 barrels per day during the same period last year. Production exceeded 4,000 barrels per day in both January and February before easing in March.

Perenco also posted a strong increase. Average production reached 10,156 barrels per day in the first quarter, up from about 8,309 barrels per day during the corresponding period in 2025. Output remained above 10,000 barrels per day in both February and March.

BpTT also contributed to the national increase. Liquids production averaged 4,906 barrels per day during the first quarter, compared with approximately 3,263 barrels per day in the same period last year. Monthly production remained relatively consistent throughout the quarter, ranging between 4,812 and 5,047 barrels per day.

Prominent Dominican businessman, Gregor Nassief, Friday left open the option of taking legal action to force the government to address what he has described as ‘disturbing’ issues within the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme.

Under the CBI progamme, Dominica provides citizenship to foreign investors in return for making a substantial investment in the island’s socio-economic development.

‘You know, the court is there. The court is always there for redress,’ Nassief, a hotelier and investor in the CBI programme told a news conference, flanked by his attorney, Noelize Knight Didier. ‘I tell people that all the time, constitutional actions, judicial review actions, the courts are always there, and that is what will be there for Secret Bay (resort) …but the first course would be and what we would like to do is to Petition the President ( Sylvanie Burton) to establish a Commission of Inquiry ….(that) really would be a very suitable way to deal with this,’ the attorney added.

She said that an independent commission should be established to ‘look at what has been going on, get that forensic audits that Mr. Nassief was speaking about and really …get to the bottom of this and figure out what is going on’.

Earlier this week, Nassief released to the public, a letter he had sent to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and Opposition Leader Jesma Paul-Victor in June, after the document was leaked and began circulating widely on social media.

He told reporters that he was not being ‘naive’ into thinking that the June 17, 2026 letter would not have been leaked given that it was copied to several other people including Cabinet ministers, parliamentarians, President Sylvanie Burton, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBIU).

‘But I I was certainly clear there was a risk the letter could be leaked. But please understand that I’ve been writing for seven years, 14 letters and I have not been writing to one person. I’ve copied this to the Minister of Finance to the AG and the …the President’s office and I was getting no response.

‘And so I thought I thought that the logical next step was to involve Parliament in this. This is a very serious issue. So they were copied and certainly there was a risk the letter would have been leaked. It’s always a risk.’

Both Nassief and his attorney acknowledged that the main opposition United Workers Party (UWP) has before the courts here an issue regarding the CBI with Knight Didier saying ‘year there is a matter before the court right now with regard to where the CBI funds are being directed…

‘I think that the claim or the complaints really is that a lot of the CBI funds are not getting into the Consolidated Fund…and what Mr. Nassief is bringing to the floor today, it is similar but different.

‘It’s a different issue…to do with the CBI programme and the funds of the CBI programme but it is dealing specifically with the discounting of the citizenship and the effect of that on other persons involved in the programme and the effect on the Treasury,’ the attorney said, adding that ‘but I think what both matters raise is that the CBI programme needs auditing. It needs auditing’.

Nassief claims Dominica’s CBI’s programme is ‘completely out of control’ and that he had spent the past seven years writing at least 14 letters to Prime Minister Skerrit and providing what he described as evidence of wrongdoing without seeing meaningful action.

‘My letters repeatedly warned of market distortion, pricing irregularities, Treasury loss, reputational damage with international partners,’ Nassief said, insisting that ‘my concern was always compliance, integrity and the long-term sustainability of our CBI programme’.

‘my warnings were not acted on in a meaningful way,’ said Nassief, whose Secret Bay resort spans 40 acres of rainforest and clifftop terrain on Dominica’s northwest coast. It features 27 private luxury villas, with expansion plans for a total of 42 villas.

Among his main concerns are allegations that some CBI-funded developments continue to benefit from the illegal discounting of citizenships and Nassief, told reporters that his investigations found developers and service providers were offering citizenship well below the legal price.

He said that such a practice had resulted in diverting substantial revenue away from the Treasury even as he questioned the arrangements surrounding major national projects, including the cable car, international airport and marina.

Nassief told reporters that these projects have proceeded without final planning approval and the agreements with developers have lacked transparency and public scrutiny, adding that key contracts were awarded without a competitive tender process.

Nassief said with regards to the cable car project, a 4.1 mile infrastructure development designed to connect the Roseau Valley to the iconic Boiling Lake in the southern part of the island, the developer received more than 400 citizenship allocations along with a 999-year lease within the Morne Trois Pitons National Park.

Nassief said that while he is aware that member countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OES) with CBI programmes have established a regulatory authority to govern, he had as far back as 2019 made a case for such a body.

‘However, when you read the legislation that has been proposed for the establishment of the regulator…what I don’t like about the regulation is that, as a friend of mine said, it’s the regulated regulating the regulator.

‘So the Council of Ministers responsible for the CBI programme in each of the islands set policy for the regulator. And that makes no sense. The regulator needs to be completely independent. And if that is the case, then I think it is the way to go.

‘And once they have the powers of authority, the powers of sanctions, the powers of audit, then absolutely, it makes sense. But they have to have the authority, the independence, and the powers necessary to regulate the programme.’

Nassief, the president-elect of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), said he wanted to distance the regional body from the issue, adding ‘this is a completely separate matter, and I don’t think the fact that I’m the president-elect of the CHTA has any bearing or influence on the matters that I’m raising here.

‘I am a citizen, I am an investor, a business person, and I’ve raised serious concerns for many years and documented them. I think that should be enough,’ he said, acknowledging that he is concerned as an investor at the possible fallout of going public.

‘Yes, I am. But I think I’m also putting the investors first because the investment in the real estate projects here, for that investment to be preserved and protected, our CBI programme has to be cleaned up.

‘And I think the actions I’m taking, if we are successful in restoring integrity to the programme, that it will be a benefit to all of the investments, to the future of the programme and the future of the industry. So let’s just say that I’ve reached the point that so much damage has already been done that we can only go up from here.

‘We can’t continue to go down. And I hope that by raising these concerns, we will start to see an improvement in things. That is my hope.’

Nassief said regarding concerns raised by Europe and other countries regarding the CBI and the United States imposing visa restrictions on some Caribbean countries ‘the quickest way to restore the confidence of our national partners, including the US, is through transparency, is through well-run programmes, and through aggressively dealing with these issues and cleaning up these issues.

‘It is within our control, within the government’s control, to clean this up. And, you know, I always say that for most persons investing in citizenship throughout the Caribbean, it is a mobility advantage.

‘So they invest in a second passport, because if they’re from Egypt and they need to go to Europe or to the UK, or they need to apply for a visa to the US for business, for healthcare, for their kids, for education, having a passport that has visa-free access is a very valuable thing to have, you know?

‘And what we forget is that that value doesn’t come from us. That value is a privilege granted to us through visa-free from other countries. And if we don’t value that and we do not address their concerns, we’re going to lose access, which we’ve seen, and we’re going to devalue the passport. And that is what has taken place.’

Nassief, who has the renewal of his US visa denied, said ‘we must always keep in mind that any step towards transparency, towards a programme, one with integrity, shows that we value the visa-free access that we have, shows that we are addressing their concerns seriously.

‘But if we continue to mismanage our programmes, and we show that we’re not able to regulate our own programmes, why should they trust us to address the issues that they have?,’ he asked.

Guyana’s rice industry is embracing an innovative climate-smart farming model that has the potential to significantly reduce production costs, improve environmental sustainability and create an additional source of income for hundreds of rice farmers.

The rice-duck integrated farming system, being piloted by the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), allows farmers to cultivate rice while simultaneously raising ducks on the same acreage, creating two marketable products from a single crop cycle. The initiative is expected to reduce farmers’ reliance on costly herbicides, insecticides and synthetic fertilisers while improving profitability and supporting the government’s drive to modernise agriculture through sustainable production systems.

GRDB’s agronomist, Dr Ghansham Payman, said ducks naturally perform several functions that would otherwise require expensive chemical inputs.

‘The ducks work as weed control agents, and they feed on insects, snails and other pests, while their droppings return organic matter and nutrients to the soil. From our pilot project, farmers can reduce synthetic fertiliser application by 50 per cent or more,’ Payman said.

The pilot project, which introduced 100 ducks per acre, has already demonstrated encouraging financial returns with Payman saying farmers were able to recover the entire investment made for duck housing, fencing, ducklings and feed within a single crop.

‘We had 100 per cent recovery of the investment cost in one season. Moving forward, those infrastructure costs are already covered, meaning farmers stand to earn higher profits with every subsequent crop.’

Beyond lowering production costs, the integrated system offers farmers an additional income stream from duck sales while maintaining rice production on the same parcel of land.

Payman said the initiative is particularly suited to small-scale farmers who live close to their fields and can effectively manage the ducks throughout the production cycle.

‘If we can transition 700 to 800 farmers from cultivating only rice to a rice-duck integrated system, they will maximise the use of the same piece of land while increasing profitability. It also creates opportunities for women and young people to participate in agriculture,’ he added.

FAO’s Livestock Specialist, Dr Gayle Young, said the approach has been successfully practised in several Asian countries for decades and is now being adapted to Guyana’s conditions to create a sustainable production model.

‘We are also focusing on gender because this system is easier to manage. It creates opportunities for women, youth and small farmers to participate in agricultural production while lowering overall production costs,’ Young said.

The Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) is providing technical support to ensure farmers produce healthy, market-ready ducks while building long-term sustainability.

GLDA’s livestock extension coordinator, Selwyn Anthony, said the agency’s role is to support farmers with duck management, identify quality breeding stock and ensure continuity of the project, so farmers eventually become self-sufficient in producing their own ducklings.

The GLDA is also exploring opportunities to develop a premium market for ducks raised under the integrated system.

‘Once we establish that the meat quality is similar or even superior, we can market it as pasture-raised ducks from rice fields. That creates an additional value-added product for farmers,’ he said.

The project currently supports farmers across Guyana’s rice-growing regions with starter kits that include ducklings, feed, feeding and watering equipment, and fencing materials and is expected to expand during the next cropping season, allowing more farmers to benefit from the innovative production model.

ARNOS VALE, St. Vincent, Aug 7, CMC- The Jamaica Kingsmen, sent in to bat, posted 167 for seven against the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons in the opening match of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) here on Friday.

SCORES:

JAMAICA KINGSMEN 167-7 in 20 overs (Rovman Powell 47, Reeza Hendricks 42, Keemo Paul 16, Shayan Jahangir 13; Alzarri Joseph 3-34).

The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC) says it has been vested with the title to the lands upon which the Beachfield gas processing facility in Guayaguayare, the southeasternmost village here.

It said this marks an important milestone in the advancement of the Manatee Project, a major offshore natural gas development led by Shell Trinidad and Tobago and located 100 kilometers off Trinidad’s east coast and holds an estimated 2.7 trillion cubic feet of gas. First gas production is targeted for 2027, supplying the domestic market though the NGC.

A statement from the Ministry of Energy, Land and Legal Affairs said that NGC’s freehold ownership of the lands and all associated structures, resolves a longstanding matter of occupation of the land dating back to the facility’s construction and commissioning by British Gas between 2004 and 2006.

‘The vesting of the title to these lands in NGC allows the Manatee Project to proceed without delay. These approvals also provide the necessary authorisations to undertake planned upgrades, and expansion works to the facility. As part of an agreement between NGC and Shell Trinidad, the Beachfield facility will serve as key onshore infrastructure for receiving gas from the Manatee field.’

‘The Ministry of Land and Legal Affairs is proud to have played a critical part in advancing and securing the country’s energy sector,’ said Land and Legal Affairs and Minister in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Saddam Hosein.

‘The Ministry stands ready to provide support to NGC, to work together through efficient and legal administrative processes to create the certainty needed for strategic projects such as Manatee to move forward. This milestone demonstrates a shared commitment to delivering long-standing value for the people of Trinidad and Tobago.’

NGC’s chairman, Gerald Ramdeen, said that the legal transfer of the state lands was a result of strong collaboration among the Ministry of Land and Legal Affairs, the Office of the Commissioner of State Lands and NGC.

‘By resolving a matter that has remained outstanding for over two decades, NGC’s current leadership has reinforced the importance of good governance, disciplined stewardship of state assets and effective partnerships in supporting Trinidad and Tobago’s long-term energy security.’

ARNOS VALE, St. Vincent, Aug 7, CMC- The Antigua and Barbuda Falcons won the toss and elected to bowl first vs the Jamaica Kingsmen in the opening match of the 2026 Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League (CPL) here on Friday.

TEAMS:

Antigua and Barbuda Falcons XI: Evin Lewis, Rahkeem Cornwall, Tim Robinson, Jahmar Hamilton (wk), Tajinder Singh, Karima Gore, Fabian Allen (capt), Shamar Springer, Usama Mir, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales

Jamaica Kingsmen XI: Shayan Jahangir (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Shaqkere Parris, Keacy Carty, Rovman Powell (capt), Andre Russell, Hassan Khan, Keemo Paul, Hunain Shah, Vitel Lawes, Jediah Blades

Umpires: Christopher Taylor, Deighton Butler

TV Umpire: Leslie Reifer

Reserve Umpire: Ryan Banwarie

Match Referee: Denavon Hayles

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Friday welcomed The Bahamas as the latest member to join the Alliance for Primary Health Care (PHC) in the Americas.

The PHC is a regional initiative led by PAHO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the World Bank and supports countries in strengthening primary health care and transforming health systems through coordinated investment, innovation, and technical cooperation.

PAHO said that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country’s accession was formalized during a hybrid signing ceremony held in Nassau, with representatives of the government, PAHO, the IDB, and the World Bank participating in person and virtually. As part of its accession, The Bahamas established a Consultative Mechanism for Primary Health Care, a strategic platform led by the Ministry of Health and Wellness that will bring together national authorities and the Alliance partners to coordinate investments, technical cooperation, and innovation around the country’s health priorities.

‘The Bahamas is pleased to join the Alliance for Primary Health Care in the Americas and welcomes this important partnership. For us, partnership in the Alliance is not about adding another country to a regional network, it is about adding meaningful impact where it matters most – in the lives of our people,’ said Health and Wellness MInister, Michael Darville.

‘Through this Alliance, we envisaged that technical expertise, investment and innovation would be better aligned with our national priorities; support for the implementation of The Bahamas National Health Strategy; and an accelerated transformation of the country’s health system through a primary health care approach.’

The mechanism will serve as a permanent forum for policy dialogue and technical collaboration, helping coordinate investments and technical cooperation with national priorities, coordinate ongoing and future initiatives, and advance implementation of The Bahamas National Health Strategy.

‘The Bahamas is the first CARICOM member state to join the Alliance, marking a new chapter for the initiative and creating an important opportunity to extend its benefits across the Caribbean,’ said PAHO’s Director, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa.

‘Through the Primary Health Care Consultative Mechanism, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, PAHO, the IDB and the World Bank will work together to identify shared priorities, align technical cooperation and investments, and translate our shared commitment into a practical roadmap for implementing the National Health Strategic Plan.’

The Alliance supports countries through coordinated technical cooperation, financing, and policy dialogue. Since its creation, it has facilitated the alignment of investment plans and the mobilization of resources for more than one billion US dollars to strengthen primary health care across the Region.

‘The Bahamas is taking an important step toward strengthening its health system through stronger, more coordinated primary health care. This Alliance enables us to work alongside the Government and our partners to expand access to quality services and build a more resilient, equitable, and people-centered health system,’ said Steven Collins, Chief of Operations at the IDB Country Office in The Bahamas.

Health Practice Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at the World Bank Group, Michele Gragnolati, said ‘we warmly welcome The Bahamas to the Alliance. The Bahamas’ decision to join reflects a clear conviction that stronger primary health care is the foundation of healthier people, more resilient systems, and a more prosperous region.

‘Through the Alliance, we are helping Caribbean countries turn shared ambition into financed, measurable results to bring quality, affordable, and resilient care closer to every family,’ she added.

With the incorporation of The Bahamas, the Alliance now brings together 12 countries in the Americas namely Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and The Bahamas.

PAHO said that it will continue working closely with The Bahamas to strengthen primary health care through technical cooperation, policy dialogue, and capacity building, contributing to universal access to health and more resilient, people-centered health systems.

-The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops has sent a letter to Florida lawmakers urging them to support legislation extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals residing in the United States until 2029.

The bishops, representing the state’s six dioceses, signed the letter, dated August 5, 2026 in which they urgently called on Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, both Republicans from Florida, to pass Bill S. 4814. ‘This law will provide short-term security for our Haitian brothers and sisters, while also contributing to broader legislative reforms, including the possibility for long-time residents of our communities to regularize their status,’ they wrote, expressing also their ‘deep pastoral concern for the current state of our immigration system and the human realities it creates.

‘Many of these families find themselves without legal status or resources, while returning to their country of origin remains dangerous, impractical, and unreasonable given the situation there.’

They said that the ‘situation is especially daunting for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, Venezuelans, and others who have been relying on temporary protected status (TPS) to live and work lawfully in the United States.

‘So many of these families are left without any legal status or a way to support themselves, all while returning to their country of origin remains unsafe, impractical, and unreasonable because of the ongoing conditions there.’

The letter follows the earlier appeal by the Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, for compassionate immigration protection for Haitians with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) upon the expiration of their automatic work permit extensions on July 27.

After the TPS expiration, Archbishop Wenski traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with members of Congress and advocate for the approximately 353,000 Haitian nationals with TPS in the United States.

In June, the US Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with stripping TPS from hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants.

Democrats are urgently pushing the US Senate to pass legislation extending TPS bit their efforts have been blocked by Republicans, leaving hundreds of thousands vulnerable to deportation.

The U.S. House of Representatives advanced the bill that would extend temporary protected status (TPS) for Haiti through 2029 in April, and the measure has stalled in the Senate.

The bishops also called for broader immigration reform, citing Pope Leo XIV’s message on the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding in which he said ‘those who have arrived seeking freedom, opportunity, and a place to belong have helped to shape the nation’s character.

‘To receive them into the nation with compassion and generosity is not only an act of charity but also a recognition of the dignity that belongs to every human person.’

In their letter, the bishops said ‘we do not ask you to commit yourselves to immigration reform as a rejection of the national interest but as a means of promoting it.

‘Beyond even the positive economic and social contributions made by immigrants, including those in our own state of Florida, the considerations warranting meaningful improvements to our immigration system are profoundly moral in nature.

‘The Catholic Church remains committed to working with you and your colleagues in Congress to bring about bipartisan reforms of our immigration system. Please be assured of our prayers for you and your service to our nation in this 250th year of its independence,’ they wrote.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is seeking a 10-year unconditional prison sentence for a man accused of rape, unlawful deprivation of liberty, assault, and attempted intentional HIV infection.

The OM is also asking the court to deny the man bail. The court was told that the victim, a sex worker, had accompanied the man to his home in exchange for payment and according to the OM, while the two had initially engaged in consensual sex, the woman indicated she wanted to leave, bit the suspect allegedly refused to let her go.

The OM, which did not disclose when the incident occured, said that the man subsequently assaulted the woman by, among other things, hitting, biting, and strangling her. He is also alleged to have torn her clothing and then forced her to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse.

According to the OM, the victim has given consistent statements from the moment of filing the complaint up to and including the hearing of the case at trial and that her statements are supported by photographs of the injuries and other evidence in the case file.

The court was told that when the police arrived at the residence, the suspect refused to open the door and the Fore Department had to provide assistance so that the police could enter the home and free the victim.

During the trial, the Public Prosecution Service further argued that the victim, despite working as a sex worker, practiced safe sex by using a condom and that the suspect knew that he was HIV-positive but allegedly failed to inform the victim of this. The OM claimed that he raped her without using a condom.

The OM said in doing so, the suspect willfully and knowingly exposed her to a risk of which she was unaware and that the fact that the victim works as a sex worker in no way justifies the actions of which the man is suspected.

The Public Prosecution Service is asking for a 10 year prison sentence deducting the time he has spent in pre-trial detention. The case is continuing.

President Irfaan Ali has instructed the Office of the Attorney General to review penalties for artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content after a fisherfolk raised concerns over a significant drop in sales linked to misinformation of the MV Barima tragedy.

In the aftermath of the July 18 MV Barima tragedy, in which 73 people were killed and more than 30 others still missing and feared dead, doctored images and AI-generated videos began circulating online, misrepresenting details of the tragedy and fuelling public confusion. As a result, this has led to an increase in reluctance by the public to consume fish.

Ali said that this type of misinformation ‘can cause severe harm on communities of society,’ telling the Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, ‘I’m asking you to look at that’.

President Ali, who was speaking at the Model Village Initiative consultation on Thursday, added that the government will roll out a public education campaign to help the public identify manipulated content and understand the harm it can cause.

Earlier this week, the government said that the search and recovery operations following the MV Barima tragedy have ended.

However, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre remains operational, and the government said ‘there has been no change in the status of the identification of the recovered bodies’.