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ENERGY UPDATE NEEDED

www.newsday.co.tt

While nationals must understandably feel a sense of satisfaction at Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s advice to a recent LNG Ministerial Summit in Washington, DC that Trinidad and Tobago was the largest producer of LNG in the Western Hemisphere and the largest exporter of ammonia and methanol in the world, there is, nonetheless, a need for nationals to be fully briefed on the energy sector.

The country needs to be provided with regular updates — as is done in the case of international crude oil prices — as to what prices liquefied natural gas and ammonia and methanol produced here are fetching, and the corresponding world prices should there be a difference. Trinidad and Tobago should be briefed also on the annual production and exports of LNG , methanol and ammonia and the revenues derived by Government from them. In turn, it would be of interest to be advised on the annual wage bills of the various companies and the overall amount of money spent in this country on goods and services purchased here, including electricity, water et cetera along with a five or ten-year projection.

The information will provide the country with a better insight into the contribution being made by the individual companies to the national economy and their projected contribution to say, 2013. At the same time, despite the recent assurances given by the Minister of Energy, Eric Williams, of substantial proven reserves of oil and natural gas Government should, nonetheless, seriously consider the formulating of a policy of capping or confining the annual production of natural gas and crude in direct relation to proven reserves at any given time. Trinidad and Tobago should not allow itself to be seduced into the approving of unlimited production of our natural gas and crude oil to meet the requirements of the United States of America, Spain and countries served through Spain, and the eagerness of multi-nationals to satisfy these demands. We should think of the troubling economic position in which the country could find itself say 50 or even 100 years from now, and the clear need to conserve the national patrimony for as long as possible.

Meanwhile, we should provide added impetus to the setting up of more spin-off energy based industries. Already, the agreement reached for the establishment of the fourth Atlantic LNG train has provided for the extraction of ethane capable of supporting as the Prime Minister told the LNG Ministerial Summit a “world scale ethylene plant of 800,000 metric tonnes per year.” Additionally, we should seek to optimise returns from the production of hydrocarbons through a carefully worked out programme for the projected University of Trinidad which will embrace training in a wide range of skills with the emphasis on those leading to the production of goods and services both for the domestic and export markets. Side by side with this there should be specially devised programmes for motivating underachievers with specific emphasis on training them in skills development enabling them to make a needed contribution to Trinidad and Tobago’s industrial and economic growth.

Trinidad and Tobago News

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