Opinion
- Editorial
Rickey
Singh:
The
Caricon energy tango
ON
THIS Ash Wednesday, as Trinidad and Tobago cools
down from Carnival 2007, Prime Minister Patrick
Manning would most likely want to focus on an issue
of critical importance to this country and its Caricom
partners-energy, which remains the backbone of the
local economy.
Last
Wednesday, Mr Manning had shared in Kingstown with
Prime Ministers Ralph Gonsalves (St Vincent) and
Owen Arthur (Barbados) a media briefing on the outcome
of the 18th Caricom Intersessional at which energy
was one of the major agenda issues, regional air
transportation being another.
For
their tango on the energy sector, the Kingstown
conference had considered a draft Caricom Energy
Policy prepared by the Regional Task Force on Energy.
Prime Minister Manning had presented the draft as
Head of Government with lead responsibility for
energy matters.
Need
for a more accelerated coordinated approach involving
Trinidad and Tobago as Caricom's traditional primary
supplier of oil and natural gas has emerged with
two significant developments.
These
are the Venezuela-initiated PetroCaribe project
with its offers of energy supplies on concessional
terms and linkages for funding of social and economic
development programmes; and Trinidad and Tobago's
unforeseen problem in honouring a bilateral agreement
with Jamaica to provide some 1.1 million tonnes
of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year on preferential
terms.
The
latter problem poses a serious threat to Jamaica's
high profile alumina smelter enterprise and has
sparked suggestions in some political quarters for
the matter to be taken to the Caribbean Court of
Justice as a case of failure to honour a signed
bilateral agreement.
This
is a route the Jamaica government of Prime Minister
Portia Simpson-Miller is resisting. Kingston prefers
instead, at least for the present, for Port of Spain
to speed up promised "alternative options"
to overcome the problem "as soon as possible".
That was the message to emerge from deliberations
at last week's Caricom conference in Kingstown.
Advancing
the process towards a practical resolution in the
shortest possible time, seems to require, among
other initiatives, the involvement of Venezuela.
As a consequence of the PetroCaribe project Venezuela
is now being viewed as the "other major regular
energy provider"-along with Trinidad and Tobago-in
Caricom.
For
Manning, an immediate challenge to be faced has
to do with relations between the administrations
in Caracas and Port of Spain and the need for a
meeting, the sooner the better, with President Hugo
Chavez.
Quite
unlike his Caricom counterparts, the majority of
whose governments are involved in various ways with
PetroCaribe, Manning has been maintaining a surprising
distance in personal relations with Chavez.
This
has been particularly evident since the 2005 Caricom
Summit in St. Lucia where he chose to publicly spill
his anger over the inauguration of the PetroCaribe
project.
Now
that he and his Caricom colleagues have had what
was euphemistically described as "frank and
serious discussions" on security of energy
supply as well as diversification of energy sources
and markets-within the framework of a draft Caricom
energy policy-new initiatives are to be pursued
in Venezuela-Trinidad and Tobago relations.
A
related positive development is the recently announced
significant agreement between Trinidad and Tobago
and Venezuela to share natural gas reserves in the
Platforma Deltana gas field. It involves a huge
reservoir of some ten trillion cubic feet of natural
gas, 25 percent of which is to be available to Trinidad
and Tobago.
My
understanding is that while new approaches are being
pursued by the Manning administration for engagement
with the Chavez government on energy cooperation,
enabling initiatives are to be undertaken in other
Caricom capitals, including Kingstown, Kingston
and Georgetown for, if necessary, a wider engagement
involving some Community leaders and Chavez.
In
the meanwhile, at their meeting in Kingstown last
week, the Community leaders recommended that a special
meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development
involving Caricom Energy Ministers, takes place
and have a report ready for consideration at the
annual summit of Caricom leaders scheduled for Barbados
in July.
Rickey
Singh is
a Trinidad's Express columnist. Petroleumworld not
necessarily share these views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Trinidad
Express on,Wednesday,
February 25th 2007. Petroleumworld reprint this
article in the interest of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
02/25/07
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