PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) — ExxonMobil signed a deal on Tuesday to explore a vast area near Trinidad and Tobago for oil and gas, even as the twin-island nation faces pressure to focus more on green energy deals.
The search will take place off Trinidad’s east coast, in a region that spans more than 2,700 square miles (7,000 square kilometers) and is more than 6,500 feet (2,000 meters) deep, according to government officials.
The deal was signed following six months of negotiations that were held at a record pace, said John Ardill, ExxonMobil’s vice president of global exploration.
There are “no guarantees of success,” Ardill cautioned during the ceremony. “But many of the largest discoveries and developments in the world are occurring in deep-water environments similar to what you have here.”
Ardill said ExxonMobil is committed to starting a geophysical survey in the next six months to collect data needed to identify prospects for oil and gas, after which, it will begin drilling for testing.
Using nearby Guyana as an example, Ardill said it took the country less than five years to start producing oil after the initial discovery. He noted that 10 years after that discovery, Guyana is currently producing around 650,000 barrels of oil per day.
“We see great potential to replicate the Guyana success here,” Ardill told the audience in Trinidad.
While promising to help expedite the process, Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the necessary oversight and guardrails will be in place to ensure standards are not compromised.
The prime minister said the agreement with ExxonMobil provides additional energy security for the Caribbean nation of approximately 1.4 million people. She noted that while there would be efforts to reduce carbon emissions during the project, Trinidad and Tobago would not hold back on using its energy resources.
“The Northern Hemisphere developed their countries to the fullest and are now trying to put on us that we should clamp down on our carbon emissions, (that) we should look not too much to hydrocarbons,” Persad-Bissessar said. “Trinidad and Tobago has a competitive advantage when it comes to hydrocarbons, when it comes to the energy sector, and we should not lightly surrender that.”
ExxonMobil first began operations in the twin-island republic in February 1998, but left in 2003 after its exploration efforts were unsuccessful.
The ExxonMobil deal comes after a planned energy production partnership involving Trinidad and Tobago and neighboring Venezuela was halted by the U.S. government revoking two Office of Foreign Assets Control licenses for the partnership. The licenses were necessary due to U.S. sanctions against Venezuela’s energy industry.
This story corrects the depth of the area to be explored to 6,500 feet (2,000 meters).
FILE - The ExxonMobil logo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Oct. 8, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
In Friday’s case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”
Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.
Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.
On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.
No major violence occurred, but Yoon's stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.
After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.
Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
