On 17 November 2017, local press reported that A&V Oil and Gas Ltd's (A&V Oil) sale of the Moruga East Block to Chinese buyer Shandong Deshi Petroleum Engineering Group Co Ltd (Shandong Deshi) has hit the buffers. The company has been trying to sell the block to Shandong Deshi since 2015 with a formal agreement signed on 11 November 2016. Shandong Deshi's payments were to be US$ 19.5 million in four tranches or US$ 14 million in five tranches. State NOC Petrotrin apparently gave conditional approval for the commercial terms of the sale in August 2015 subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. Petrotrin hasn't fully approved the deal due to some of these conditions not being met, and so the deal still hasn't completed. The block is held through a 10-year Incremental Production Sharing Contract (IPSC), also known as a Trinidad Sub-Licence Agreement, with Petrotrin which is due to expire in November 2019. A&V Drilling & Workover Ltd was awarded the IPSC in November 2009. There is some question mark as to whether this was transferred to an affiliate A&V Oil and Gas Ltd. Both are owned by Haniff Nazim Baksh, a local businessman who is friends with Prime Minister Keith Rowley. He appears to share ownership of A&V Drilling & Workover Ltd with his senator daughter Allyson Baksh and A&V Oil and Gas Ltd with his other daughter Vivian Baksh. A&V Oil has other troubles as it is part of an ongoing investigation by Canadian consulting firm Krall at the behest of Petrotrin, regarding discrepancies in oil sold to the state-owned firm from its Catshill IPSC.
Moruga (Rock Dome)