An international energy reserves expert is advising Government to find ways of ensuring the country has enough natural gas to meet its demands.

Herman Acuna, managing senior vice-president, International, of energy reserves auditing firm Ryder Scott, yesterday said the Government should pursue a strategy to ensure there is a timely supply of natural gas to meet its obligations.

He also said Government needs to continue promoting its exploration and production initiatives to add to the country's reserves.

He was speaking yesterday following the release of the Ryder Scott Gas Reserve Audit at the Hyatt Regency (Trinidad) hotel in Port of Spain.

The audit shows Trinidad and Tobago's proven natural gas reserves now stand at 13,257 billion cubic feet (bcf), its probable reserves at 6,035 bcf and its possible reserves at 6,158 bcf.

The results of the audit are for 2012, although the year under review was 2011.

T&T also has an "unrisked" exploratory reserve of 30,452 bcf.

Acuna noted that for 2011, proved gas reserves declined by 1.5 per cent.

"Historically, the decline that we have seen every year in our proven reserves category is in the range of seven to nine per cent.

"The decline of 1.5 per cent is small compared to previous years. In 2008, our proven reserves declined by 9.5 per cent; in 2009, it was 6.2 per cent and in 2010 it was 6.6 per cent.

"We at the Ministry see this as a reversal of a trend that we have been observing for the last five years," Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said at the audit presentation yesterday.

"Last year we produced 1.34 trillion cubic feet of gas and we were able to move reserves up from the probable into the proved category in the order of 1.14 trillion cubic feet. The majority of that movement is associated with the performance of BP with smaller upward revisions from BG and EOG Resources.

It is important to point out that this reserves replacement was due to better-than-expected performance of producing reservoirs and the re-mapping of several areas," he added.

Asked by reporters if the Ryder Scott results meant gas was now available for continued expansion in the country's energy sector, Ramnarine responded:

"What today has done is send a signal that T&T has the capacity to continue replacing reserves as we use them."