Young: Gas for TT up to 2019

This assurance was given yesterday by Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young during a conversation with reporters at the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Tower in Port-of-Spain.

Young accompanied Rowley to his meetings in Houston.

Young also disclosed that BHP Billiton recently discovered new reserves of natural gas in deep-water acreages off east Trinidad.

He said Government is working to resolve the gas supply issue with Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (MTHL) which led to the closure of two of that company’s five plants at the Pt Lisas Industrial Estate. “Certain formula is being worked on with respect to gas and diversion of gas that we are hoping will allow them to restart their plants,” he said, adding the final decision will be MTHL’s.

Stressing that the National Gas Company (NGC) will remain the aggregator of natural gas, Young said the Government has no intention of opening up the market to allow up-streamers to provide gas directly to down-streamers as this would kill NGC. He also reiterated that poor policy decisions by the former People’s Partnership (PP) government contributed to the gas shortage and has resulted in NGC having to deal with $3 billion in claims from certain entities.

Describing last week’s trip to Houston as “very successful” and the conclusion of “months and months of discussions” with energy multinational companies based there, Young said, “We managed, we think, to continue to give buoyancy to the industry for the next few years and in fact to attract investment beyond 2019.” He said one of the things which was successfully negotiated with BP and Shell “is a continued supply of gas up to 2019, to keep us at the levels that we are at now.” He said these companies also agreed that any increase or finds of gas or increased efficiencies on their part will see them selling “to NGC to assist the downstream industry.” Young said, “From that aspect, we’ve gotten more gas going until 2019.” Noting the Juniper project will be on stream in the third quarter of 2017 and will maintain the country’s gas production at its current levels, he said, “When you are in a situation like this, any more scuffs of gas is going to assist.” He said, “What we have been speaking to them about is an allocation of more gas to the downstream (industry).” Young said the Government has been meeting with the downstream companies over time and “telling them if they can come up with any methods they think they can suggest to also assist, we would be willing to listen to that.” On the Angelin Project which will supplement Juniper, he said the PP had “come off the gas” regarding discussions to move that project and “that is what led to a delay with Angelin.” He also said certain fiscal policies by the PP resulted in TT being deprived of much needed energy revenues.

On discussions with Exxon Mobil, which is active in Guyana’s emerging energy sector, Young said, “The Prime Minister had prefaced that with meetings with President (David) Granger in Guyana. TT is about to sign a new MOU on energy with the Government of Guyana but, we are really looking to play a supporting role to the government of Guyana going forward.” He also said Exxon was invited to TT to see the infrastructure that is available here.

“They were interested in our deep-water harbours. They have been utilising our service companies and providers. We want to see how we can build it,” Young said.

The minister said there was no discussion about Exxon acquiring or becoming involved in Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

He also said the Gas Master Plan which stalled under the PP is being worked on and will be laid in Parliament this month.

Once laid it would be sent to the Energy Joint Select Committee of Parliament for scrutiny.