Ken Julien hails local energy bosses

He was delivering the 19th Dr Eric Williams Memorial Lecture on the topic "Dr Eric Williams and the Emergence of the National Energy Sector." The talk took place on Friday at the Central Bank Auditorium before an audience that included Erica Williams-Connell, President George Maxwell Richards, and Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

He said Williams’ biggest achievement in the creation of a national energy sector was not the plants at Point Lisas, Pointe-a-Pierre or Point Fortin, but the fact that the sector was now being run by people with names as varied as Malcolm Jones, Ian Welch, Rampersad Rooplal and Anthony Chan Tack.

He hailed these locals as comprising "a callaloo of surnames which would confuse anyone else but a Trini."

Julien noted Williams in his 1977 Budget speech urging investment in the well-being of our children, saying: "So each and every one of us could say as we see our children go by — well-fed, well-clothed, well-served by public transport, well-housed above all — there go my petro-dollars." If Williams were now talking to God, opined Julien, he would say to Him: "We did it, didn’t we?"

In his speech Julien recalled working with Williams to set up the Point Lisas Industrial Estate. Noting that the then power requirements of the whole country was 300 mega watts, he said the steel plant was to require 180 mega watts. "It was a formidable thing to be monetising natural gas, including convincing a sceptical public." He said Point Lisas was powered by 500 million cubic feet of gas per day which would previously have been flared or exported at a cheap price.

Julien recalled some people saying the country should simply take the revenues from exporting oil, but he said that would amount to putting the nation on the dole.

Recalling the setting up of Fertrin in a venture of the Government and Amoco, Julien related that Williams had always said sardines should keep their distance from sharks.

Julien recalled Williams’ words to him, saying: "Professor, when a developing country gets into bed with a large multi-national, it is likely it will lose its virginity. It is a risk we must take, but we must keep our sovereignty."

He said Williams in 1974 during the oil boom had said the country should not behave like it had won a windfall but should shape a strategy so that oil would bring lasting benefits to our population. "Tie up the petro-dollar in the productive sector," related Julien of Williams, "and invest in our youths."

Julien boasted of the success of our energy industries.

The National Energy Company (NEC) is the largest and most profitable State enterprise in the Caribbean. NEC has attracted private investment for six more methanol plants, seven new ammonia plants, and two other steel companies.

NEC had drawn private investment of US$6.6 billion from 1975 to 1996. He was glad that the Government’s share in investment equity had fallen from 33 percent to six percent. "The energy sector had taken a national identity and was almost on autopilot without the Government having to take the lead as an investor but merely as a facilitator."

PLIPDECO shares had risen on the stock market from 60 cents in the 1980s to $20 now. Point Lisas Harbour each month has 150 ships exporting steel, methanol and ammonia. Point Fortin Harbour has 20 energy tankers leaving each month carrying over 70 percent of the liquified natural gas (LNG) needed by the United States.

Julien hailed Prime Minister Patrick Manning for the work of his previous administration in bringing Point Lisas "from baby to maturity."