TT asphalt going to China

Addressing the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Ramnarine said the agreement will see the country receiving US$49 million in revenue through the export of asphalt to China.

He explained that the revenue will be invaluable to Lake Asphalt which has been “comatose” for many years, and help the company to re-tool and modernise to face the challenges of today’s market.

Noting that Lake Asphalt has a permanent workforce of 185 persons, Ramnarine said this agreement would result in 112 temporary employees at the company becoming permanently employed there.

Ramnarine explained that CRRC Caribbean will assist Lake Asphalt in the area of research and development, to help the company tap into the downstream market for asphalt. CRRC Caribbean was hired by the former PNM government as the main contractor on the Scarborough Hospital project in Tobago, and is still the contractor on that project.

Ramnarine also said there has been a ten percent decline in the supply of natural gas to the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, but this does not mean “we are running out of gas, or there has been a drop in the reserves”.

Explaining that this decline occurred over the last three months, Ramnarine said the estate normally uses 1600 million standard cubic feet of gas per day “which is about 40 percent of all the natural gas produced in this country”. Stating that the decline has affected methanol and ammonia production at Point Lisas, Ramnarine said the decline was due to a maintenance programme being undertaken by companies which provide gas to the National Gas Corporation (NGC) which has resulted in them shutting down platforms “one by one”.

Ramnarine said he will meet with representatives of bpTT, British Gas, BHP Billiton, EOG and the NGC to develop a commercial and engineering solution to resolve this problem. He was confident that by December 31 or early January, this matter will be fully rectified.