Episode Information

This is the story of oil and gas exploration in the Caribbean and the role played by Trinidad and Tobago in the world’s quest for “black gold” - oil - a commodity which today shapes our lives, rules our economies and influences our political society. The history of oil and gas exploration in Trinidad and Tobago tracks the course of the Republic’s relationship with its previous European colonial powers through to its independence and economic relationship with the world’s petro-chemical giants. The story begins in 1595 when England’s Sir Walter Raleigh first used Trinidadian pitch to re-caulk the hulls of his ships. Sixty years later, the Dutch were doing likewise…. And so the need grew for locally available pitch in the Caribbean, and Trinidad and Tobago’s reputation began to spread around the world.