Saith:
TT energy markets safe
Trinidad & Tobago's Newsday
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
03 18 07
ENERGY
MINISTER Dr Lenny Saith yesterday said the signing
of an LNG agreement between Jamaica and Venezuela
will not erode this country’s energy market
within the region.
In
fact, Saith disclosed that it was Prime Minister
Patrick Manning who suggested to Jamaican PM Portia
Simpson-Miller that Jamaica seek an LNG arrangement
with Venezuela because Trinidad and Tobago was not
able to provide gas to Jamaica under the Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) that it signed with TT in
2003. The minister further disclosed that because
Venezuela does not have an LNG-producing facility
right now, the LNG going to Jamaica might come from
the fifth LNG train which Government is currently
contemplating.
Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez and Simpson-Miller signed
an MOU in Kingston yesterday which will see the
South American nation supplying natural gas to Jamaica
by 2009. Manning and Simpson-Miller’s predecessor,
PJ Patterson, signed an MOU in 2003 to supply Jamaica
with LNG.
In
stating that the Venezuela-Jamaica LNG agreement
will not harm TT’s energy markets in the region,
Saith told Newsday that the supply of gas to Jamaica
from TT under the 2003 was contingent on the ability
of the fifth LNG train, Train X, to provide that
gas.
Apart
from a small amount of LNG supplied to the Dominican
Republic, the rest of TT’s LNG is exported
to the United States. Saith said Manning informed
the Jamaican government at a recent Caricom Heads
meeting that TT was not in a position to supply
gas and they should speak with Venezuela.
Trinidad
& Tobago's Newsday
Wednesday, March 14 2007
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