Carib Scope

作者： admin

  • Copa gecertificeerd voor snellere passagiersafhandeling te Zanderij

    Copa gecertificeerd voor snellere passagiersafhandeling te Zanderij

    Paramaribo, Suriname – Copa Airlines has formally wrapped up certification for the new shared Common Use Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) developed by Ink Innovation at Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (JAPIA), marking a key milestone in the airport’s ongoing digital overhaul of passenger services. The completion of the process now allows the Panamanian carrier to leverage the airport’s centralized check-in and boarding infrastructure, replacing the separate proprietary system the airline operated previously. The new shared platform is being rolled out in a partnership between Ink Innovation and local Surinamese information and communications technology firm Wintel N.V., which is handling on-site certification and technical support for all participating airlines.

    Copa Airlines is the third carrier to go live on the system, joining Sky High Dominicana and FlyAllWays, which have already launched full operations on the CUPPS platform. Four additional airlines – GOL, Caribbean Airlines, KLM, and Surinam Airways – are currently in the final stages of the certification process, according to official project updates. The core advantage of the shared system is that it eliminates the need for individual airlines to maintain and rely on dedicated, separate hardware and software systems at their own check-in counters. All certified carriers can access the centralized terminal infrastructure while retaining secure connectivity to their own internal airline operating systems.

    Gianni Klaiber, Ground Station Supervisor for Copa Airlines at JAPIA, highlighted the dramatic efficiency gains delivered by the new platform. Prior to the transition, Copa operated its own standalone processing installation at the airport. “With the common-use environment, we now process passengers roughly ten times faster than we could with our old system,” Klaiber explained. The shift to a shared infrastructure is a core strategic priority for Airport Management Ltd. (AML), the operator of Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport, which aims to transition every airline serving the airport onto the unified CUPPS platform long-term.

    AML director Vijay Chotkan called Copa’s certification the next critical step forward in the airport’s digital transformation. “Every airline operating at Johan Pengel Airport will transition to Ink CUPPS,” Chotkan stated, noting that Copa is one of the largest carriers serving the gateway, making its onboarding a particularly important milestone. Chotkan added that the shared infrastructure is designed to enable faster, more reliable passenger processing even as the airport serves growing numbers of travelers.

    For airport operators, the CUPPS model delivers far greater flexibility in allocating check-in counters and boarding facilities, especially during peak travel periods when multiple departures are scheduled close together. By allowing counter spaces to be dynamically reassigned to different airlines based on demand, the system helps maximize the use of existing terminal capacity more efficiently than the outdated model of dedicated, airline-specific counters. With Copa now fully operational on the platform and the remaining major carriers in the certification pipeline, the transition to a unified passenger processing environment at JAPIA is progressing steadily as part of the airport’s broader digitalization push.

  • Jawahir among OECS acceptees into African Academy for women politicians

    Jawahir among OECS acceptees into African Academy for women politicians

    A historic step in cross-continental gender empowerment and diplomatic cooperation has been achieved, as two senior female politicians from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have gained formal admission to a prestigious pan-African political leadership development program, marking the first formal inclusion of Caribbean leaders in the initiative.

    The OECS Commission confirmed this week that Lanien Blanchette, Speaker of the National Assembly of Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Lisa Jawahir, Minister of Agriculture of Saint Lucia, have been officially welcomed into the African Academy for Women in Political Leadership. Both leaders traveled to Kigali, Rwanda to take part in the academy’s official launch event held between August 2 and 7.

    Blanchette, a trained lawyer, has built a strong regional reputation for her consistent advocacy for youth political inclusion, unwavering defense of constitutional integrity, and tireless promotion of transparent democratic governance.

    Founded through a collaborative partnership between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Union Commission, the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), and the African School of Governance (ASG), the academy was created to equip emerging and established women political leaders with advanced, practical capabilities in strategic planning, policy design, and legislative drafting. Its core curriculum covers critical leadership competencies including electoral campaign strategy, cross-party coalition building, systemic legislative reform, ethical public governance, and effective implementation of public policy initiatives.

    In an official statement, the OECS Commission framed the admission of the two Caribbean leaders as a landmark milestone, as it brings formally brings Caribbean political leaders into this major continental governance training program for the first time. The statement emphasized that this inclusion represents a tangible acknowledgment of the African diaspora by the African Union, recognizing the diaspora as the official sixth region of the African continent.

    Credit for the breakthrough integration was given to Aisha Maina, OECS Strategic Advisor for Africa-Caribbean Cooperation, whose leadership and persistent outreach laid the groundwork for the historic achievement. Maina spearheaded efforts to expand the academy’s global outreach and successfully shepherded the nominations of Blanchette and Jawahir to represent the Eastern Caribbean region.

    Dr. Didacus Jules, Director General of the OECS, called the inclusion of the two leaders a point of collective pride for the entire OECS community. “This milestone underscores the extraordinary calibre of female leadership within our Member States and signals a dynamic new era of transatlantic collaboration between Africa and the Caribbean,” Jules noted. He added that Maina’s work continues to prove that the deep historical and cultural bonds between Africa and the Caribbean are actively reshaping the future of inclusive global leadership.

  • Tropical storm could bring heavy rain to Caribbean

    Tropical storm could bring heavy rain to Caribbean

    The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) has announced the formation of Tropical Storm Dolly in the central tropical Atlantic, which emerged early Thursday. The newly formed system is already on track to bring significant precipitation risks to multiple Caribbean islands over the coming weekend, even as forecasters predict it will weaken before reaching land.

    As of the latest 11 a.m. advisory, the center of Tropical Storm Dolly sits roughly at 13.6 degrees north latitude and 38.7 degrees west longitude. The storm is currently tracking westward at a forward speed of 24 miles per hour, equal to 39 kilometers per hour. It carries maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 km/h), with gusts reaching higher speeds, and the storm’s minimum central pressure is recorded at 1007 millibars. Tropical-storm-force winds extend as far as 60 miles (95 kilometers) outward from Dolly’s center.

    Forecast projections from the NHC show that Dolly will maintain its westward trajectory over the next 48 hours. While little change in overall strength is expected in the short term, the system is predicted to degrade into a remnant tropical wave before it can approach the Leeward Islands, which it is expected to reach this weekend. Even though Dolly will no longer be classified as an organized tropical cyclone when it passes the island chain, the moisture carried by the system will still bring dangerous weather impacts.

    The NHC warns that heavy rainfall will start impacting the Leeward Islands from late Saturday through Sunday. Precipitation will then spread to the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola on Sunday and Monday. The greatest risk comes from potential flash flooding, which poses a particular hazard in elevated and mountainous areas across the affected region. Local authorities have advised all residents in the Leeward Islands to keep close track of updates on the storm’s progression as the weekend approaches.

    An interesting side note has drawn public attention to the storm: Dolly formed just two days after the passing of legendary country music star Dolly Parton. However, the NHC clarified that the name Dolly was already pre-selected and added to the official 2026 Atlantic hurricane season naming roster long before the singer’s death, meaning the naming was purely coincidental.

  • Julien Alfred storms to national record, ends Jefferson-Wooden’s winning streak

    Julien Alfred storms to national record, ends Jefferson-Wooden’s winning streak

    The Letzigrund Stadium lights shone brightly on a historic women’s 100m showdown at Thursday’s Weltklasse Zurich Diamond League, where 2024 Paris Olympic champion Julien Alfred outdueled the sport’s most decorated recent sprinters to secure a nail-biting win, snapping Melissa Jefferson-Wooden’s two-year undefeated streak and setting a new national record for Saint Lucia.

    Starting from Lane 6, Alfred delivered a near-perfect race against challenging conditions, competing into a 0.7m/s headwind that slowed every competitor down. Her reaction time off the blocks was a blistering 0.139 seconds, and by the 30-meter mark, she had already surged to the front of the pack, clocking 4.04 seconds. She held the lead through every 10-meter interval all the way to the finish line, with sharp, efficient mid-race technique that saw her cover 50m to 70m in two consecutive 0.93-second segments to fend off closing challengers.

    The finish was one of the closest in elite sprinting history. Reigning world champion Jefferson-Wooden pushed hard from Lane 4 and crossed the line in 10.70 seconds, but a photo finish confirmed Alfred had edged her out by just five thousandths of a second: Alfred officially clocked 10.693 seconds to the American’s 10.698.

    2023 world champion Sha’Carri Richardson finished third with a time of 10.97 seconds, just one hundredth of a second ahead of Jamaica’s Tina Clayton (10.98), while European champion Amy Hunt rounded out the top five in 11.04 seconds.

    Alfred’s historic win resets her own Saint Lucian national record and catapults her into 10th place on the all-time list of the world’s fastest female sprinters, a milestone that puts her small home nation firmly on the global track and field map. She currently sits with 23 qualification points in the Diamond League 100m standings, though she has confirmed she will only compete in the 200m event at the upcoming Brussels stop next month. More importantly, the dominant performance against one of the deepest fields assembled this season sends a clear signal that Alfred is in peak form heading into the World Athletics Ultimate Championships.

    In a post-race interview, Alfred opened up about the challenges of competing at the top of the sport after her Olympic triumph. “Running this fast is never easy, especially because getting out the blocks is always a challenge for me – I could be sleeping in that box all year,” she joked. “But I trust what I can do, and what I can’t do.”

    She added that retaining elite status requires far more work than reaching the top, noting: “Staying at the top is definitely a harder job than making it up there. I mean, going up the mountain, you are still hungry; you want more. It is not much fun when you’re not the one being hunted. When I became Olympic champion, it was a completely different state – mentally and emotionally. In the times that people have high expectations of what I should be doing, I have to turn to my team: my coach, my agent and my family in particular.”

    Reflecting on her national record, she emphasized the impact for her home country: “We have a long way to go in Saint Lucia, but we are getting there. A national record puts Saint Lucia on the map.”

    The 10.693-second time, posted into a headwind against the strongest sprint field of 2026, confirms the Ciceron-born sprinter is perfectly tuned for the final stretch of the 2026 track and field season, with her sights set on more global glory in the coming weeks.

  • Grenada to host 35th Annual CWWA Conference and Exhibition

    Grenada to host 35th Annual CWWA Conference and Exhibition

    Against a backdrop of growing climate vulnerability across small island nations, Grenada has announced it will welcome hundreds of global and regional stakeholders as the official host of the 35th Annual Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) Conference and Exhibition, scheduled to take place October 12–16, 2026 at the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort. Positioned as a landmark gathering for advancing regional action on water security, climate adaptation, and circular waste management, the event will transform the Spice Isle into a central hub for cross-sector dialogue, innovative solution sharing, and collective action.

    convened under the official theme *One Caribbean, Transitioning to a Value-Driven Future*, the conference will draw a diverse cohort of participants, ranging from cabinet ministers and senior policymakers to utility leaders, engineering specialists, technical researchers, development partners, private sector investors, and other key stakeholders from across the Caribbean and beyond. For the 2026 edition, the National Water and Sewerage Authority (Nawasa) and the Grenada Solid Waste Management Authority (GSWMA) will serve as local co-hosts, working in close partnership with the CWWA regional body.

    Founded via an act of parliament in Trinidad and Tobago in 1991, CWWA has grown over 30+ years to become one of the Caribbean’s most influential professional organizations focused on integrated water, wastewater, and solid waste management. For more than three decades, the association has maintained a critical regional platform that enables utilities, national governments, technical experts, regulators, development partners and private stakeholders to exchange cutting-edge knowledge, build institutional and technical capacity, shape evidence-based policy, and advance practical solutions that underpin public health and long-term sustainable development across the region.

    Grenada last held the CWWA conference back in 2010, and its return 16 years later marks a key milestone for the island nation to contribute to regional progress on some of the Caribbean’s most urgent environmental and development challenges. The long-standing collaborative relationship between Nawasa and CWWA, paired with GSWMA’s established leadership in national environmental management, creates a robust foundation for the 2026 event. This co-hosting arrangement also highlights the inherent interconnectedness of water security, sanitation access, solid waste governance, and broad environmental sustainability that the conference will center.

    As Small Island Developing States (SIDS), Caribbean nations including Grenada remain on the front lines of accelerating climate change, facing increasingly severe extreme weather events, extended drought periods, shifting rainfall patterns, rising average temperatures, and growing threats to critical public infrastructure and natural resources. The catastrophic damage caused by Hurricane Beryl in 2024 brought these systemic vulnerabilities into sharp relief for Grenada, especially in the island dependencies of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where critical water and public infrastructure suffered extensive damage. That devastating experience reinforced the urgent need to build more robust, adaptive systems that can withstand climate shocks and enable rapid recovery.

    While water security is a core pillar of climate resilience, effective solid waste management is equally critical to protecting Grenada’s coastal communities, fragile ecosystems, and tourism-dependent economy. With national waste volumes growing steadily and existing landfill capacity reaching its limits, policymakers and utility leaders across the island are increasingly prioritizing sustainable waste practices including resource recovery, recycling, and waste diversion. These approaches not only reduce pressure on natural ecosystems but also unlock new opportunities for economic value creation. This re-framing of waste from a disposable burden to a reusable, valuable resource directly aligns with the conference’s focus on building a “Value-Driven Future”, while also supporting protection of Grenada’s iconic marine environments, tourism brand, community health, and livelihoods.

    Hosting the 35th CWWA conference is projected to deliver wide-ranging benefits for Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, while also strengthening cross-regional collaboration across the water, wastewater and solid waste sectors. Hundreds of delegates, exhibition partners, technical experts and development stakeholders are expected to travel to Grenada for the week-long event, generating tangible economic activity for local hotels, restaurants, transportation providers, tour operators, small businesses and other local service providers. Beyond immediate economic gains, the event will raise Grenada’s international profile as a capable destination for major regional and international conferences, while giving local professionals direct access to emerging green technologies, global expertise, development partnerships and potential financing for critical infrastructure projects.

    For local engineers, technicians, policymakers, and emerging young professionals working across Nawasa, GSWMA and related sectors, the conference will create unique opportunities for cross-border knowledge exchange, professional upskilling, and exposure to proven sustainable solutions already implemented across Caribbean and global contexts.

    Speaking at the official media launch for the conference, Grenada Prime Minister and Public Utilities Minister Honourable Dickon Mitchell reaffirmed the national government’s full commitment to delivering a successful event. “The Government stands fully behind Nawasa and GSWMA to deliver a world-class event that reflects Grenada’s warmth and technical professionalism,” Mitchell stated. “Investing in water security and solid waste management across Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique remains central to our national resilience and regional leadership on climate adaptation.”

    Candice Santana, President of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association, emphasized the strategic value of the 2026 gathering and CWWA’s decades-long role in enabling collaborative regional progress. “For decades, CWWA has provided a unique platform where Caribbean Water Ministers can share challenges, exchange solutions and speak collectively,” Santana noted. “We also bring together utilities, development partners, technical experts and financing opportunities — creating value and building capacity across our national water sectors.”

    The 2026 conference will feature a full schedule of programming including technical research presentations, stakeholder panel discussions, industry exhibitions, professional networking sessions and high-level ministerial engagements, all focused on the pressing issues shaping the future of the Caribbean’s water, wastewater and solid waste sectors. More broadly, the event will serve as a critical catalyst to move regional climate and resource conversations beyond problem identification to the delivery of practical, sustainable, investment-ready solutions that strengthen community resilience and improve quality of life for all Caribbean people.

  • Tropical Storm Dolly Poses Very Low Wind and Rainfall Risk to Antigua and Barbuda

    Tropical Storm Dolly Poses Very Low Wind and Rainfall Risk to Antigua and Barbuda

    The Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service has issued an updated tropical cyclone information statement Thursday afternoon, confirming that former tropical disturbance AL96 has officially strengthened into Tropical Storm Dolly. As of 3:00 p.m. Eastern Caribbean Time (ECT) on August 27, 2026, the newly named storm is currently churning across the central waters of the tropical North Atlantic, and forecasters project it will almost certainly break apart before it can reach the island chains of the Eastern Caribbean.

    According to the official forecast released by the service, Dolly is on track to dissipate within 48 hours, roughly 300 miles east of Antigua and Barbuda by Saturday. Even in the most pessimistic reasonable worst-case scenario outlined by meteorologists, the system would only reach the islands as a weak, minimal tropical storm. At this stage, the risk of damaging wind impacts and disruptive heavy rainfall from Dolly across the region remains very low, and officials have not called for any immediate emergency preparatory action from residents. Moderate risk of elevated, potentially hazardous ocean swells does remain in place, however, and coastal communities have been advised to stay alert to changing conditions.

    Residents across the Leeward Islands and British Virgin Islands are encouraged to continue monitoring official updates for any shifts in the storm’s track or intensity. Forecasters also used the update to remind the public that the Atlantic hurricane season is still ongoing, and all households in hurricane-prone areas should maintain baseline preparedness to respond to future systems.

    Meteorological data pegged Dolly’s center at approximately 1,550 miles east-southeast of Antigua and Barbuda and the broader Leeward Islands as of 11:00 a.m. ECT (1500 UTC) Thursday. The storm is currently tracking westward at a forward speed of roughly 24 miles per hour, with maximum sustained winds clocked at near 40 miles per hour – the minimum threshold for classification as a tropical storm. Over the coming 48 hours, forecasters expect little significant change in Dolly’s strength, before the system degenerates into a disorganized tropical wave well before it can reach the Leeward Islands, which would put its closest approach sometime between Saturday and Sunday.

    As of the publication of this statement, no tropical cyclone watches, warnings, or alerts are currently in effect for any part of the monitored region. Officials noted that an update to alert status could be required later Thursday if conditions change unexpectedly. The next scheduled public update from the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service is set for approximately 2:00 p.m. local time Friday, with an earlier release planned if urgent changes to the forecast emerge. The statement was issued by lead forecaster Dale Destin.

  • CDEMA Regional Recovery Experts Roster to strengthen Caribbean recovery

    CDEMA Regional Recovery Experts Roster to strengthen Caribbean recovery

    The Caribbean region, long vulnerable to frequent climate and natural disasters that disrupt communities and slow development, has taken a major step forward in strengthening collective post-disaster recovery capacity. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) has formally launched the Recovery Experts Roster under its Caribbean Resilient Recovery Facility (CRRF), a specialized regional talent pool crafted to empower member states to deliver more effective, timely post-disaster reconstruction and recovery programs.

    On August 26, CDEMA held the first official orientation session for the roster’s inaugural cohort of 14 technical professionals. This launch marks a key milestone in rolling out the CRRF, a multi-stakeholder collaboration led by CDEMA alongside its global development partners. The initiative was designed to address a longstanding gap in the region’s disaster management ecosystem: the disconnect between immediate emergency response and structured early recovery, which often delays reconstruction and prolongs community hardship after major events.

    Beyond core capacity building, the roster is built to provide on-demand surge support to disaster-hit nations across a diverse range of critical sectors. Covered areas of expertise include civil engineering, education system recovery, social work, mental health psychology, small and medium business development, information technology for disaster coordination, and public healthcare recovery, ensuring affected countries can access specialized skills that may not be available domestically.

    Opening the orientation, CDEMA Deputy Executive Director Lt. Col. Kester Craig underscored the non-negotiable role of regional cooperation in boosting collective recovery capacity. “No single country in our region has all the resources needed to respond to and effectively recover from major disaster impacts,” Craig noted, pointing to the frequent scale of hurricane and storm damage that outstrips individual national resource capacities across the Caribbean.

    Craig added that the centralized roster will allow CDEMA to rapidly match specialized expertise to the unique recovery needs of each affected country, eliminating coordination gaps and ensuring recovery efforts are aligned with local needs, inclusive of marginalized communities, and responsive to evolving on-ground conditions.

    The inaugural session was led by CDEMA Disaster Recovery Specialist Jason Francis and CRRF Research Intern Natalia Extavour. During the orientation, the new experts received comprehensive briefings on the CRRF’s operational framework, clear definitions of their roles and responsibilities during deployments, and CDEMA’s standardized deployment protocols and humanitarian action benchmarks to ensure consistent, high-quality support across all missions.

    Francis framed the first cohort as a foundational step in building out the full regional recovery facility, and extended gratitude to the participating experts for their commitment to advancing regional resilience. “This is the first cohort of experts to join the roster, and we look forward to utilising your skills and expertise as we continue to build out the regional recovery facility,” Francis said.

    Officials from CDEMA emphasized that the launch of the Recovery Experts Roster reinforces the agency’s core long-term commitment: pooling shared regional resources, strengthening individual national recovery capacities, and advancing the goal of climate-resilient recovery across every Caribbean nation. The agency plans to expand the roster over time to add more specialized skills and increase surge capacity for large-scale disasters that impact multiple countries simultaneously.

  • Alphonse preps for Cycling Worlds

    Alphonse preps for Cycling Worlds

    The Saint Lucia Cycling Association (SLCA) has wrapped up a dynamic summer of progress, advancing two key pillars of the island nation’s cycling growth: nurturing young local talent and supporting elite competitive aspirations, as the country’s top young cyclist gears up for a major global stage next month.

    Nineteen-year-old Denver Alphonse Jr., the current reigning national cycling champion hailing from La Caye, Dennery, is halfway through a rigorous six-week elite training block at the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Continental Development Satellite Centre based in Bromont, Canada. The rising star is fine-tuning his form ahead of the upcoming UCI Road World Championships, scheduled to take place in Montreal from September 20 to 27.

    Alphonse’s 2026 competitive season has already marked a series of historic milestones for Saint Lucia cycling. In June, he secured a clean sweep of national titles, taking home first place in both the elite road race and individual time trial events. This victory adds to his 2025 national road championship crown, cementing his status as the country’s most promising young cycling talent.

    Riding for the Martinique-based team ASC Karaïbes Culture Sports (KCS), Alphonse earned a spot on the Under-23 podium at the Grand Prix Mill€co.Shop earlier this year, and went on to represent Saint Lucia at the Pan American Championships hosted in Colombia. He also competed at the 2025 UCI Road World Championships in Rwanda, becoming the first Saint Lucian cyclist in history to have his national team jersey added to the permanent collection of Belgium’s KOERS Museum of Cycling, a landmark recognition for the island nation’s small but growing cycling community.

    During his current training stint in Bromont, Alphonse trains alongside experienced French cyclist Benjamin Payen, under the continued guidance of his long-time coach Alex Noreskal. Alphonse and Noreskal have previously worked together alongside Payen during training and regional competitions in Martinique with KCS.

    While the elite rider chases global success abroad, the SLCA has been building the sport’s future at home. The association recently concluded a week-long youth development summer camp in Vieux Fort, bringing together 20 young riders from three local primary schools — Plain View Combined School, Vieux Fort Primary, and Augier Combined — for hands-on instruction led by experienced coach Leo Serieux.

    The camp was designed to introduce young participants to the fundamentals of competitive and recreational cycling, covering core topics including cycling theory, sports nutrition, basic exercise physiology, road safety rules, and introductory race preparation strategies. At the camp’s closing ceremony, Danny Butcher, Member of Parliament for Vieux Fort South, awarded completion certificates to all participating young riders to mark their achievement.

    The dual focus on elite international competition and grassroots youth development this summer reflects the SLCA’s long-term strategy to grow cycling across Saint Lucia, creating pathways for new talent to emerge and compete at the highest global levels.

  • Grenada highlights offshore energy potential at IMAGE 2026 Conference

    Grenada highlights offshore energy potential at IMAGE 2026 Conference

    Grenada’s Hydrocarbons Technical Working Group has wrapped up a successful mission at the 2026 International Meeting for Applied Geosciences and Energy (IMAGE), held in Houston, Texas — one of the world’s most influential industry gatherings for energy geoscience professionals.

    During the conference, the Caribbean nation’s delegation leveraged the high-profile platform to host a targeted investor roadshow, reaching out to leading international oil and gas companies to highlight the country’s largely untapped offshore hydrocarbon potential and drum up support for its first-ever licensing round, scheduled to launch in 2027. At Grenada’s dedicated exhibition booth, team members held one-on-one discussions with prospective investors, industry partners, and leading geoscientists, walking attendees through newly completed technical assessments and walking them through the scope of the country’s untapped energy resources.

    The IMAGE 2026 participation delivered five key strategic wins for Grenada’s energy development ambitions. First, it granted the small island nation unmatched direct access to a global audience of major upstream operators and energy investors, putting its untapped offshore potential in front of the industry’s key decision-makers at a single premier event. Second, the delegation’s on-site engagement generated significant technical and commercial interest from attendees, who validated Grenada’s updated subsurface geological models, regional prospectivity analyses, and comparative geological studies through in-depth expert discussions. Third, the conference appearance successfully built pre-launch buzz for the upcoming 2027 licensing round, which will put seven offshore areas up for bidding: six fully defined exploration blocks and one open acreage area. Fourth, the event created a valuable space for technical knowledge exchange, with Grenada’s team sharing its latest evaluations of high-resolution 2D seismic basin data with global experts, highlighting confirmed active hydrocarbon indicators and global geological analogues that demonstrate the commercial viability of the country’s resources.

    For industry attendees, the conference appearance clarified key details about what Grenada is bringing to the table for the 2027 round. The total offshore acreage on offer covers approximately 28,600 square kilometers across the geological Grenada Basin and Tobago Trough, with water depths ranging from 180 meters to 3,000 meters, spread across the six defined blocks and one open exploration area.

    Geographically, Grenada’s offshore blocks are strategically located adjacent to already prolific producing basins controlled by major regional energy producers including Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela, Guyana, and Suriname. Despite this favorable geological position, the area remains drastically underexplored: to date, only one exploratory well has been drilled in Grenada’s offshore territory, leaving up to 12 kilometers of sedimentary geological section untested for commercial hydrocarbon reserves.

    The technical data presented for the first time at IMAGE 2026 draws on a robust, newly compiled seismic database that combines two major multi-client 2D seismic surveys: 6,979 kilometers of CAMDI 2D seismic data collected by Geoex MCG, and approximately 710 kilometers of CARIBE SPAN 2D seismic data acquired by industry leader TGS.

    Advanced interpretations of this new seismic data have confirmed multiple promising prospective play types across geological intervals from the Upper Eocene to Upper Pliocene eras. These include high-potential structures such as deepwater turbidite channels, fan complexes, large transpressional anticlines, and structural closures. Clear Direct Hydrocarbon Indicators (DHIs), including distinctive bright seismic amplitudes and gas chimneys, confirm the presence of an active hydrocarbon system in the basin.

    To contextualize the resource potential, Grenada’s technical team conducted global analogue benchmarking against 937 producing hydrocarbon fields with matching geological settings around the world. The analysis confirms that individual accumulations in Grenada’s basins could hold up to 3.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent of in-place resources, marking a major potential upside for successful explorers.

    This report was issued via the Office of the Prime Minister of Grenada. NOW Grenada does not take responsibility for the content or opinions shared by contributing authors.

  • Politie bezorgd over drugs, alcohol en geweld onder jongeren

    Politie bezorgd over drugs, alcohol en geweld onder jongeren

    Suriname’s national police force has issued an urgent warning over a sharp rise in harmful and dangerous behavior among the country’s young people, with issues ranging from substance abuse to violent viral social media trends increasingly demanding law enforcement attention.

    Speaking at a press briefing with senior police leadership on Wednesday, Commissioner Ishita Hunte, head of the Suriname Police Service’s (KPS) Serious Crime Combat Division (BZC), stressed that the growing youth problem requires urgent collective attention from across society.

    One particularly alarming trend Hunte highlighted is the viral “Guess Who Slapped Me Challenge,” a harmful social media trend that forces a blindfolded young person to be hit by other participants, then guess which person delivered the blow. The dangerous stunt has already led to multiple incidents requiring police intervention, according to Hunte.

    With the summer holiday period in full swing, Hunte issued a direct warning to parents: children have far more unstructured free time while many working parents are unable to provide constant supervision, making it critical for caregivers to stay informed about what activities their children are engaging in, both online and offline.

    Beyond viral dangerous challenges, KPS has documented clear upward trends in underage alcohol and drug consumption across the country. Local schools have repeatedly reached out to police to request educational outreach addressing pervasive bullying, grooming, and other harmful interpersonal behaviors among students. During routine bag checks at school campuses, officers have also recovered a growing number of dangerous weapons and prohibited items in recent months.

    To counter these developments, the Suriname Police Service has ramped up community outreach and educational initiatives designed to help young people understand the serious short- and long-term risks of substance abuse and behaviors that cross legal and social boundaries.

    However, senior police leadership emphasized that the root of the youth crisis cannot be addressed by law enforcement and judicial authorities alone. Problematic and criminal behavior among young people often stems from deeper, unaddressed societal issues that require coordinated intervention from multiple sectors.

    Police officials stressed at the briefing that a connected, whole-of-society “chain approach” that brings in other public institutions, community organizations, schools, and families is essential to turning the tide. “We cannot solve this crisis with only police and judicial action,” leadership reiterated during the event.