TT
South Chamber: Consider gas from Venezuela
By Louis B Homer
South Bureau
Trinidad Express
Port Spain
Petroleumworld.com
09 24 06
In the face of growing concerns about the depletion
of the nation's natural gas reserves, the South
Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce has made
a call for an early decision on the importation
of gas from neighbouring Venezuela.
"The reality for us in Trinidad
and Tobago is that we have limited oil and gas reserves
by global standards," Rampersad Motilal said
in a speech marking his re-election to a second
consecutive term as president of the Chamber during
the group's annual general meeting at Cara Suites,
Claxton Bay, yesterday.
Motilal said the country "needs
to make early progress on the issue of the import
of gas from Venezuela."
He said that some reasons why Trinidad
has been able to attract investors to its shores
was because of its geographic location, stable democracy
and the established rule of law and respect for
contractual arrangements.
Apart from the importation of gas
from Venezuela, Motilal said the time has come to
develop a national priority policy to strengthen
the capability of long-term gas supply by accessing
other sources of gas.
"There is an estimated 38 trillion
cubic feet of gas in the Plataforma Deltana region,
Venezuela, just off Trinidad's southeast coast and
very close to existing infrastructure in Trinidad,"
said Motilal, adding that "while some progress
is being made towards the management of reservoirs,
we need to initiate discussions to bring about a
strong and consistent policy with Venezuela."
Motilal
is also advocating the start of a more aggressive
exploration programme in a bid to find more gas
reserves needed to service the growing number of
energy based industries in Trinidad.
Trinidad
Express
Friday, September 22nd 2006
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