‘TT needs more electrical power’

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning said Trinidad and Tobago needs more electrical power and the matter is now being actively pursued by the Cabinet’s Standing Committee on Energy (CSCE). Addressing a post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall on Friday, the Prime Minister disclosed: “The Government is now contemplating the forward demand for electricity in the years to come in the context of the plans that we have for electricity utilisation. As it now stands, the normal increase in the utilisation of electricity is leading to a situation where we are going to need additional generating capacity.”

The controversial InnCogen plant, established under the former UNC regime, was supposed to deliver that additional capacity but failed to serve its intended purpose, InnCogen’s principals subsequently went bankrupt and the InnCogen deal is now one of several matters currently being investigated by the PNM Government for alleged corruption. Manning also reminded reporters of a recent agreement between Government and British Petroleum giving the former acess to 100 million cubic feet of natural gas which will be priced in such a way to facilitate the development of an aluminium smelter in TT. He said the matter is currently before the CSCE, the discussions were “quite dynamic” and it was unclear what would be the smelter’s size and related demand for electricity.

The Prime Minister gave the assurance that Trinidad and Tobago will suffer no losses in LNG revenues by not giving approval for British Gas (BG) to transfer the assets of El Paso Merchant Energy in the Elba Island regasification terminal to its subsidiary, British Gas LNG Services. Manning recalled that TT supplied 68 percent of the LNG entering the US market in 2003 and is the only nation to export LNG to all four regasification terminals ( Lake Charles, Elba Island, Cove Point and Everett) on the US East Coast. “There is no problem in selling LNG. All contracts have an arrangement that allows you the flexibility that if you can’t dispose at one point, you dispose at the next. The agreement does not say that you can dispose of LNG at one place and to one supplier,” the Prime Minister explained. Manning reiterated that no deals, secret or otherwise, were made during his visit to England last month.