Senator Ali still waits on Govt answers

INDEPENDENT Senator Basharat Ali is still waiting on Government to tell him the status of its proposed projects in the energy sector — some eight months after he first raised queries on the October National Budget. He made this disclosure last week to the Senate during debate on the Supplementation and Variation of Appropriation Bill 2005, that adds $3 billion to the Budget. Ali read out the questions he had asked in October about the Government’s plans for our energy industries. Is Government operating its proposed projects in accordance with a supposed Natural Gas Master Plan,” Ali asked? “As far as I am aware (it) is not in the public domain,” he added.

What was the status of the upgrade of refineries at Petrotrin and Trintoc, respectively, he wondered aloud.  Did Govern-ment have any information on its proposal to use a moth-balled methanol plant to create a Gas-to-Liquids Plant, to convert certain chemicals from the “wet” stream of raw natural gas into synthetic liquid petroleum? “Now that LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) Train Four is near to start up and long-term ethane availability is pretty well assured, what positive steps are being taken to further develop an ethane cracker project with interested parties?” Was Government still interested in establishing a methanol-to-propylene plant, which Ali has criticised as “unproven technology?”

Ali asked about the status of three projects to produce nitrogen-based chemicals like ammonia and urea. “Are these projects competing for approval and if so what criteria will be applied to determine the pecking order?” He also queried the Aluminium Smelter proposed for Chatham/Cap-de-Ville. He asked if a stream of natural gas, which is being given by bpTT in place of paying royalties, is to be used to generate electricity for the aluminium smelter. “Is a second smelter being considered and if so what is the rationale, where our only input is our natural gas converted to electricity?”

As to local steel mills, Ali asked, “Now that Mittal is essentially owner of ISG (International Steel Group) and the former Caribbean ISPATT, how does Government propose to deal with the two subsidiaries?” Will the direct reduced iron (DRI) plant being brought to Trinidad again by NUCOR bring this country any benefits, especially as it includes no downstream facilities? “Who has assessed the integrity of this plant? For example does its design conform to standards for earthquakes and hurricanes adopted as Caribbean engineering standards?”