Guayaguayare is the southeasternmost village in

Trinidad & Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of Gr ...

. It lies at the southern end of the county of Mayaro. Guayaguayare (often simply called ''Guaya'') is primarily a fishing village, but it also plays a major role in the

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

industry. The largest petroleum producers in the country - BP Trinidad & Tobago (bpTT),

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

and

Petrotrin Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Petrotrin) was a state-owned oil company in Trinidad and Tobago. Its principal activities were the exploration, development and production of hydrocarbons in addition to the manufacturing and mark ...

all have major presences here and bpTT controls the Port of Guayaguayare, which services most of the offshore petroleum production in Trinidad. The major

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

pipelines, serving Atlantic

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

Point Fortin Point Fortin, officially the Republic Borough of Point Fortin, the smallest Borough in Trinidad and Tobago is located in southwestern Trinidad, about southwest of San Fernando, in the historic county of Saint Patrick. After the discovery of pe ...

and the

Point Lisas Point Lisas is a major industrial centre in Trinidad and Tobago and is host to the ''Point Lisas Industrial Estate'' and the ''Port of Point Lisas'', both of which are managed by Plipdeco (the Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Company). Po ...

Industrial Estate, come ashore here. Guayaguayare was the first area in Trinidad sighted by

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

on July 31, 1498. The area along Guayaguayare Bay, between the Lizard River (originally ''Rio de Iguanas'') and the Pilote River (''Rio de Pilotas'') was settled by

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

planters and their

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in the late eighteenth century following the 1783 '' Cedula de Población''. Guayaguayare also has a prominent place in the history of the oil industry - it was the site of the first commercially viable wells drilled in Trinidad by

Randolph Rust Randolph may refer to: Places In the United States * Randolph, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Randolph, Arizona, a populated place * Randolph, California, a village merged into the city of Brea * Randolph, Illinois, an unincorporated commu ...

and

Lee Lum Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese s ...

in May 1902. It is the birthplace of

Jillian Richardson Jillian Cheryl Richardson-Briscoe (born March 10, 1965 in Guayaguayare, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Canadians, Canadian athlete who competed mainly in the 400 metres. She is a three-time Olympian. In 1988, she equalled Marita Payne's Canadian 400 ...

who won a silver medal for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

at the 1984 Olympics in the 4x400 metres.

References

* {{Coord, 10, 08, N, 61, 02, W, region:TT_type:city, display=title Populated places in Trinidad and Tobago Ports and harbours of Trinidad and Tobago