Oil and Gas and Economic Development: A Sudy of Trinidad and Tobago 1980-2020

This book is structured to provide an extended Executive Summary for those busy readers who wish to make a quick journey through the full scope of the study while deferring a more detailed perusal of individual chapters as their time permits. The study should be of interest to those who seek an understanding of the challenges that countries reliant on natural resource revenues face, especially developing countries that are in various stages of economic, social, institutional, and political development. The theoretical framework of the Resource Curse is used in conducting this Research. The study focuses on Trinidad and Tobago, a country that has been reliant on the petroleum industry for more than fifty years. The country has benefitted from both oil and natural gas. The country has been involved in crude oil exploration and production for more than one hundred years. This study seeks to explore the perspectives of local energy experts on the impact of oil and gas revenues on the economic and developmental performance of the country. The study explores the economic, social, institutional, and political realities and how they influence country development within the framework of the Resource Curse. It is hoped that the findings of the study will enhance our understanding of the resource curse phenomenon on Trinidad and Tobago and provide useful policy directions for mitigating its effects.