Saith:
No fixed price for Alcoa gas
By Juhel Browne
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 10 06
No price has been fixed for the natural gas required
to operate Alcoa's proposed 341,000 metric-tonne
aluminium smelter, Energy Minister Dr Lenny Saith
said yesterday.
He
also said the Alcoa smelter will only require "two
to three per cent" of the natural gas now being
produced and poses no threat of tapping out existing
reserves.
Saith
was responding to questions on the issue during
yesterday's post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall,
Port of Spain.
"That's
a matter of economics and economical viability that
has to be looked at but it's not a reason not to
build a smelter. You could say you shouldn't build
a smelter at a gas price of two cents per million
cubic feet but that's not a reason not to build
a smelter. That then becomes 'At what gas price
should you build a smelter?' and that's a different
argument," Saith said.
He
said that once the investor and those selling the
gas had agreed on a price, the information would
be available for an economic analysis will be done.
"The
builder of the smelter would take the gas price
when it's agreed and run his numbers and see whether
it makes sense for him to build it. The people who
are selling the gas will take that gas price and
run their model and see if it makes sense to sell
it and that is an exercise that takes place,"
Saith said.
Pressed
by reporters for details of the negotiations between
Alcoa and State-owned National Gas Company on the
price of gas for the smelter project, Saith said
the public's right to know had to be balanced with
the companies' right to commercial confidentiality.
"Now
you have a State company selling the gas but you
have a private sector firm using the gas and there
is a certain amount of confidentiality that firms
require in critical issues like this in terms of
the competitors and competition," he said.
Saith
said he will be answering questions raised by Opposition
Senator Wade Mark on the gas issue during the next
sitting of the Senate on Tuesday at the Red House,
Port of Spain.
Mark
has asked Saith to explain what is the exact price
Government intends to charge Alcoa and Alutrint
for the use of the country's natural gas for their
proposed smelters.
Trinidad
Express
Friday, December 8th 2006
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