Aboud’s group loses in Privy Council

In that application, FFOS sought leave to challenge the decision of the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) to award a certificate of clearance to oil giants bp Trinidad and Tobago Ltd for the construction of a 48-inch submarine pipeline in South Trinidad.

In an unanimous judgment delivered yesterday, the Law Lords found no fault with the High Court ruling of Justice Nolan Bereaux and the majority decision in the TT Court of Appeal (Justices Lionel Jones and Rolston Nelson, with Justice Anthony Lucky dissenting).

Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC appeared for FFOS, while Martin Daly SC, Maxime Williams, and Gayatri Badri-Maharaj represented the EMA. English barrister Javan Herberg appeared for bp TT.

The Privy Council comprised Lords Hoffmann, Scott, Walker, Carswell, and Sir Christopher Straughton. The Privy Council ordered FFOS to pay costs.

The appeal related to two projects undertaken by bpTT — the construction of a 48-inch submarine pipeline at Rustville on the south coast of Trinidad, and the construction of an additional onshore underground pipeline, about 1.5 miles long, to a gas handling facility at Beachfield.

The offshore project was called the Kapok project, and the onshore part was called the Bombax project, and together, they represented an investment of hundreds of millions of United States dollars.

It was always part of the overall plan that natural gas would be transmitted from the Beachfield facility through an existing 36-inch underground pipeline to liquified natural gas facilities at Point Fortin on the west coast. This pipeline is about 43 miles long and passes through or near some heavily-populated areas in the southern part of Trinidad. It was estimated that about 110,000 people live within 2.5 kilometres on either side of the existing 36-inch pipeline.

On May 3, 2001, bpTT held a consultation meeting with a number of non-governmental environmental organisations, including FFOS. BpTT was asked to make the environmental impact assessment on both projects available to the public, but bpTT had already submitted the assessments to the EMA.

Gary Aboud, secretary of FFOS, wrote to the chairman of the EMA complaining about the projects, but on November 29, 2001, the EMA granted a certificate of clearance to bpTT for both projects. It was not until March 2002 that Aboud found out that the certificate was granted to the oil company. It then took FFOS two months to file the judicial review application challenging the award of the certificate.

Under the Judicial Review Act 2000, Aboud and the FFOS had three months within which to challenge the grant of the certificate to bpTT.

But he found out four months later, so he filed for judicial review seeking an extension of time during which he could challenge the decision of the EMA to grant the certificate of clearance to bpTT.

When FFOS applied for leave on May 20, 2002, both projects were already up and running for five months. The Law Lords observed that by November 2003, bpTT had already spent US $267 million on the Kapok project, and US $194 million on the Bombax project.

Bereaux refused to grant leave on August 30, 2002, saying FFOS had failed to make out a case for an extension, saying the environmental watchdog could not explain the two-month delay in filing the judicial review case.