Bilateral
and regional energy agendas
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
01 06 08
As
the nation bade farewell to 2007 and embraced
2008, the energy relationship between Trinidad
and Tobago and neighbouring Venezuela was brought
to the front
burner once again following a call for T&T to play a key role in the PetroCaribe
oil supply initiative for Caricom members.
During
a PetroCaribe summit in Cuba last month, Antigua
and Barbuda government officials stated
that it was imperative that member states in the
Venezuelan energy initiative acknowledge that T&T
had a major role to play in the context of regional
energy security, a move it said Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez had endorsed.
Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados were the only
Caricom members that refused to sign on to the
PetroCaribe oil facility programme.
The fact remains that up until PetroCaribe was
launched, Trinidad and Tobago had been the dominant
energy supplier to Caricom states, which currently
enjoy vastly generous conditions, including extremely
soft interest payments and almost barter arrangements
for the oil they receive from Venezuela.
While Trinidad and Tobago had extended highly
favourable terms to Caricom states in exchange
for energy supplies over the years, it now remains
unclear what role it could play under Venezuela's
energy supply plan. Initial reactions from analysts
have raised serious doubt as to whether Trinidad
and Tobago had any real role to play under the
PetroCaribe programme.
However,
the analysts have indicated that aside from PetroCaribe,
Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela
have a wide range of pending energy related matters
yet to be resolved, particularly the unitisation
of cross border oil and gas fields which is crucial
to the future of T&T's energy industry.
What now appears important is that linking such
a bilateral issue to the regional PetroCaribe mix
should be avoided at all costs. This will require
some very skillful and intelligent negotiations
with the government of President Hugo Chavez.
Story
from
Trinidad Express
Trinidad
Express
Thursday,
January 3rd 2008
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