Saith
says Jamaica gas deal not feasible
Trinidad
Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
04 22 07
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Dr Lenny
Saith yesterday said there was no need for any
summit meeting between the prime ministers of T&T
and Jamaica to discuss this country’s inability
to supply natural gas to Jamaica.
He made the comment to the Guardian in response
to calls for such a meeting from Senator Wade Mark,
the Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate.
Mark
made a lengthy and impassioned demand for Government
to break its silence in the Senate on
the aborted November 2004 Memorandum of Understanding
under which T&T had committed itself to supplying
Jamaica with 1.15 million tonnes of natural gas
a year for 20 years beginning in 2008.
Saith
told the Guardian that to call for such a meeting
would be to assume that the two prime
ministers do not talk. In response to a question
from the Guardian he said, “Of course, they
talk.”
Asked
whether Manning and Simpson Miller had discussed
the issue of the failed MOU, which has been the
subject of heightening anti-T&T sentiment in
Jamaica, Saith responded, “I am pretty sure
they have.” Pressed further, he added, “I
can’t say because I am not the Prime Minister,
but I am pretty sure they have.”
In
a statement to the Senate, Mark said it is time
for an urgent meeting between Prime Minister
Patrick Manning and his Jamaican counterpart, Portia
Simpson Miller to discuss the increasing hostility
toward T&T from Jamaica.
He said such a summit was necessary to repair
whatever damage has been done to the relations
between the two Caricom partners.
“I would like to propose that the honourable
Patrick Manning meets urgently with Portia Simpson
Miller the honourable Prime Minister of Jamaica.
Let the two leaders settle this problem so this
hostility and this concern that we betrayed Jamaica
and we set up Jamaica and we were supposed to supply
them with gas and we didn’t supply them with
gas and they are now (with) Venezuela. These things,
Madame President, we need to clear the air on these
matters.”
In
his response, Saith said T&T always intended
to honour the commitment given when it signed the
MOU.
However,
Saith said the MOU was entered into “subject
to economic feasibility” and there was an
agreement that T&T would invest up to 40 per
cent of the equity in a company to construct a
regassification plant in Jamaica. The Jamaican
Government would invest the remaining equity in
the company.
But
Saith said in September 2006 an engineering study
put the capital cost of the regassification
plant at US$400 million and this was considered
too high. He stated that following the decision
to establish another Liquefied Natural Gas plant
in T&T, the Jamaican Government was advised
that the gas envisaged as being available under
the MOU would no longer be available. He said Jamaica
was advised to get gas from Venezuela under President
Chavez’ PetroCaribe facility.
Saith
said given the cost of the regassification terminal
it was not considered feasible to ship
gas to Jamaica from T&T.
He
referred to press releases from the T&T
Government which had appeared in the Jamaica Gleaner
on March 20 and in the Jamaica Observer on March
21 in which T&T had publicly stated its intention
to honour the MOU and to ensure that Jamaica obtained
a reliable supply of natural gas.
Mark
said T&T’s inability to meet its
obligations to supply the natural gas to Jamaica
as it had committed itself to do under the MOU
had generated a lot of hostility from the Jamaican
private sector, the Jamaica manufacturers’ Association
and even Jamaican newspaper columnists who had
all been attacking T&T.
Mark
demanded to know why T&T signed the MOU
if the country did not have the capacity to supply
the gas and demanded to know from Saith why the
Government had set itself up for embarrassment
in the matter.
He charged that this was the latest blunder by
the Government, also condemning the Government
for failing to lay the MOU in Parliament. Mark
demanded Saith lay a copy of the MOU in Parliament
and warned that if the situation was not properly
handled it could undermine Caricom relations.
He
said all T&T’s oil market in the
Caribbean is drying up as all Caricom countries
except Barbados are now buying their oil supplies
from Venezuela under the PetroCaribe agreement.
He said this meant that the State oil company
Petrotrin is in trouble and has to look for new
markets.
Trinidad
Guardian
18th April, 2007
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©2007 Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
