Point Fortin – from cocoa estates to oil town after 1906
Point Fortin was transformed by the discovery of petroleum in the area in 1906. Before that it was a quiet agricultural community of three cocoa and coconut estates, reachable only by coastal steamer, with houses strung along the seashore. In 1907 Trinidad Oilfields sank its first well on the La Fortunee Estate; the company later became United British Oilfields of Trinidad and then Shell Trinidad Limited, and was acquired by the state in 1974. The town grew with the industry between the 1940s and 1980s and was elevated to borough status in 1980; recession and the refinery's closure followed, before an Atlantic LNG plant in the late 1990s lifted the economy again. Share your memories of Point Fortin with fellow members.