HOUSTON, May 27 (Reuters) - Trinidad and Tobago received

six bids from BP, Shell and US shale producer

EOG Resources ( EOG ) on four blocks to explore for oil and gas

as its 2023 shallow water auction closed on Monday.

Trinidad plans to announce the winners in four months,

Energy Minister Stuart Young said at the closing of the auction.

All three companies bid for the Modified UC block, which is

close to the Teak, Sammaan, Poui producing fields. The auction

had no other bidders.

Trinidad is Latin America's largest producer of liquefied

natural gas (LNG), with installed capacity of 15 million metric

tons per year of the super-cooled gas. It also is one of the

world's biggest exporters of methanol and ammonia, but its

plants have been operating below full capacity in recent years

due to a lack of gas.

In October 2023 the Trinidad government put out 13 blocks

for bids. Monday's results mean that nine of the 13 blocks did

not receive any interest and all the bids were from companies

already operating on the Caribbean island.

EOG Resources ( EOG ) bid on three blocks, the Modified UC; the

Lower Reverse L, which is west of Shell's Manatee discovery and

on the border with neighboring Venezuela; and NCMA 4, in an area

operated by Shell.

Shell had one bid on Modified UC while BP, which bid on

Modified UC also placed a bid for NCMA 2 which is north of

Trinidad and not in the Columbus basin where the company has

operated since the 1970s.

Trinidad made several changes to the fiscal terms to attract

more bids after the failure of its 2019 bid round, including

reducing the tax liability for shallow-water producers, raising

cost recovery to 60% from 50%, cutting the windfall tax to 50%

from 70%, increasing the exploration period to eight years from

six years and lowering the bid fee to $30,000 from $40,000.