Enill: Lower gas prices for Budget cuts
PORT SPAIN
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Petroleumworldtt.com
12 31 08
Two new and lower prices for natural gas were used by the Government to calculate the cutbacks it has made to treat with an anticipated $5.3 billion in revenue for fiscal 2009.
The original natural gas price for the fiscal package was US$4 per million British thermal units, but global prices for Liquified Natural Gas (LNG), the nation's main revenue earner, have been on the decline since August.
Yesterday, natural gas prices averaged US$6.34 per mmtbu.
Energy Minister Conrad Enill disclosed the new natural gas prices for the Budget in an interview with the Express yesterday, after the Express reported yesterday that Finance Minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira said the oil price for the fiscal package has been reduced from US$70 per barrel to US$55 per barrel.
"Natural gas has been determined, I think, at (US)$3.25 for one (financial) quarter and (US) $3.50 for (other quarters), or some combination like that," Enill said.
Contacted last evening, Nunez-Tesheira said this combination was decided upon as there are four financial quarters in the Government's fiscal year, which began on September 1.
"So it's a combination of $3.25 and $3.50," Nunez-Tesheira said.
When he announced the budgetary cutbacks in an address to the nation on Sunday night, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that LNG revenues now account for 60 per cent of the nation's revenues.
He noted, however, that the loss of revenue this fiscal year is so serious "his administration is still projecting a deficit of $741 million, but added "this situation could be reversed with an increase of a mere US25 cents per mmtbu in the price of natural gas".
The average global price of natural gas prices had hit a high of US$10 per mmtbu in August and prices have been averaging US$6.50 per mmtbu since September 22, when the Budget presentation was made.
Story by
Juhel Browne from Trinidad & Tobago Express
-jbrowne@trinidadexpress.com
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Thursday, December 4th 2008
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