Manning,
Chavez look at energy security
By Nigel Cumberbatch
Trinidad Express
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 18 07
Secure energy supplies for the Caribbean
will top the agenda for discussion when Prime Minister
Patrick Manning and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
meet in Caracas next week.
But another important energy-related
issue likely to surface at the Manning-Chavez meeting
on March 20 will be a recent proposal by the Venezuelan
president calling for the creation of an organisation
of natural gas producers patterned along the lines
of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC).
Following a summit conference of
the Rio Group in Guyana at the beginning of this
month, Manning announced plans to travel to the
Venezuelan capital on March 20 for the encounter
with Chavez.
Although full and official details
regarding the upcoming Manning-Chavez discussions
have not been disclosed, sources close to both governments
indicated that the talks would centre around the
eventual development of oil and gas fields that
straddle the maritime borders of both countries,
secure medium and long-term energy supplies to Caribbean
countries, and Venezuela's oil facility programme
known as Petrocaribe. The two leaders also will
discuss a series of initiatives aimed at shaping
broad policies for the development of the gas industry
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The meeting comes on the heels of
an announcement by the Trinidad and Tobago Government
that it may not be able to fulfill a gas supply
commitment with Jamaica. That is only one aspect
of a rapidly changing reality in the Caribbean region
where Venezuela, a founding member of OPEC, is replacing
Trinidad as the main energy supplier.
Hugo Chavez
Venezuela's thrust as the leading
energy supplier in the region is the result of President
Chavez' initiative known as Petrocaribe, essentially
an oil facility programme designed to provide oil
supplies to the Caribbean based on special long-term
financing.
Attracted by the soft financial
terms, most Caribbean nations have embraced the
Petrocaribe initiative.
Over the past few years, Venezuela
has been putting in place a series of building blocks
as part of a strategy aimed at becoming a major
player on the global liquefied natural gas market.
Chavez repeatedly has underlined
that one of the key aspects of his government's
overall energy strategy is to shape and implement
a policy that will turn his country into an LNG
powerhouse.
And with world oil prices at all-time
highs, the country has the financial resources and
the reserves to do just that.
Venezuela's proven gas reserves
are estimated at approximately 150 trillion cubic
feet, some 58 per cent of the total reserves in
South America. The country is ranked as the world's
eighth largest gas reserves. Those reserves are
located mainly in extensive tapped and untapped
reservoirs onland and offshore in the Caribbean
Sea.
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) demand
has been growing by leaps and bounds on international
markets that have led Venezuelan planners to design
a two-pronged strategy for gas development, namely
produce gas for domestic and foreign markets.
Shortly before the Rio Group summit
in Guyana, the Venezuelan leader unveiled his proposal
for an organisation of natural gas producers in
South America that would start with Venezuela, Argentina
and Bolivia, which has the region's second largest
gas reserves, and hopefully expand to include several
other producers in the region.
Unlike Trinidad, none of those three
countries export natural gas outside South America.
Venezuela does not export gas although it boasts
of huge reserves.
Trinidad has developed a world class
gas industry and currently provides the United States
with approximately 75 per cent of its LNG imports.
Trinidad currently forms part of
the so-called Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF),
and informal group of gas producers that includes
Algeria, Iran, Russian, Libya, Qatar, Oman, the
United Arab Emirates, Bolivia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Venezuela and Norway have observer status in that
group.
Trinidad
Express
Thursday, March 15th 2007
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©2007 Trinidad Express. All Rights Reserved.
