Government’s proposals to debottleneck Atlantic LNG’s four production trains raised concerns from former National Petroleum (NP) chairman, Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan. She warned against plans to debottleneck and create additional capacity equivalent to a small train to the throughput of the liquifaction facilities at Point Fortin.
Speaking at the Congress of the People (COP) Tuesday night’s public meeting in Petit Valley, Seepersad-Bachan said the Government’s motives for the new investment was for funding its projected $7 billion national budget deficit.
“Given the glut on the LNG market, at what price would we be selling this natural resource, which belongs to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago?” she asked.
“Not because you are in a bind and you want to have a $7 billion deficit that you could fund wastage and expenditure. This does not justify the Government’s need to sell natural gas at a couple (of) cents at the well-head. “We must not allow that in Trinidad and Tobago. We own the resources of this country and citizens must stand up now and say ‘enough is enough,’” Seepersad-Bachan exclaimed. She also made inquiries about the commitment of multi-national oil and gas companies to proceed with the potential debottlenecking plans.
“Where is that natural gas coming from? Is there a commitment from the shareholders like BG and BP that they are going to prove up reserves, and when they prove up those reserves they will use that gas to convert it into LNG? “Do we have that commitment from them?” Seepersad-Bachan asked.
“If they are not doing so, what reserves are we going to use, knowing that we cannot prove up any gas reserves for another three years.
“So it is possible that we could be debottlenecking a plant that will deplete our reserves even faster."
