ABSTRACT
This chapter was prepared in 2005 as a paper to help inform the ongoing discussion in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) on how to best use the development of recently discovered, large natural gas fields for national sustainable development. Although issues in T&T have progressed since, the context then is familiar to countries where oil and natural gas are being discovered in abundance, as is the case in Africa, so the original paper is produced intact, in the hope that it might help with ongoing discussions in new producer countries. However, we have added a brief epilogue to illustrate how some of the recommendations were either implemented or not, alongside some of the consequences. The epilogue also contains select examples of the current state of T&T, looking at instances of the application and non-application of the recommended initiatives made in the paper and some of the outcomes. These examples are very limited, as this is not the primary intent of this chapter.
