TT the region’s hub of energy supply to the US

Trinidad and Tobago has been asked to put together an energy summit “in the shortest possible time”, bringing together three constituencies in the energy industry — Caricom, gas producers and the Western Hemisphere. The summit is expected to take place in Trinidad and Tobago by July “or at latest September”, Energy Minister Eric Williams said yesterday. The summit would discuss among other things, energy requirements for the Western Hemisphere, he said.

Williams, who has just returned from Washington, said he met with two assistant secretaries from the Department of Energy. He said the conversation revolved around long term security of supply, “not the physical guarding of facilities, but making sure there are long term supply sources”. He said they agreed that the US would continue to be the largest market in the Western Hemisphere, and that Trinidad and Tobago was the dominant supplier to the US market. Williams said not everybody in the Western Hemisphere talks with everybody else. But Trinidad and Tobago was on good terms with everyone, he noted. He said this country was being seen as a hub for bringing together the three constituencies — Caricom, gas producers and countries of the Western Hemisphere — and was being therefore asked to take a “leadership role to pull it all together”.

Williams said he also met with the US Trade and Development Agency which funds feasibility studies. He said they were “potentially” a source for funding a study on the intra-Caribbean gas pipeline and the potential for LNG into Jamaica. He noted that they funded the feasibility on Train 1 LNG and another project in TCL. He said he was told that Train 1 LNG was the most successful project they had funded. “So Trinidad and Tobago stands out for them,” he said.