Trinidad Courts Guyana to Restart Its Mothballed Refinery as a Forex Squeeze Bites

Trinidad and Tobago is moving to reopen the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery — shut since 2018 — and is in talks with partners including Guyana, even as weak gas output keeps foreign-exchange availability tight across the economy. The government is also fast-tracking ExxonMobil’s deepwater exploration and several smaller gas projects, while the IMF projects only about 0.7% growth for 2026 before new energy supply lifts the outlook from 2027. For the diaspora, the binding constraint remains forex: limited US-dollar access continues to complicate everything from sending value home to financing imports and family businesses. A refinery restart and fresh gas supply are the levers most likely to ease that squeeze — but both are still quarters away from changing daily life.

Source: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday; Caribbean News Global; IMF; Coface.