Trinidad and Tobago will invest US$1 billion to repair pipelines in the oil and gas sector.

Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Dr Roodal Moonilal, revealed the figure as he spoke to members of the media on Friday, indicating that the Government has begun a programme to address the oil leaks that have plagued the country’s pipelines.

“It is really in excess, if you need to look at the entire picture of doing out the infrastructure offshore, it could be in excess of about a billion United States dollars. But that is because the last administration left it in a complete state of disrepair. They did not even spend a cent to repair one pipeline in that area. So when we came, it was like everything had to be done and almost every day we are getting reports of small leaks, for example, there are pipes that are leaking in concrete structures. It is that bad.”