(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Sunday outlined several economic measures he said he was directly involved in to save the day for Trinidad and Tobago.
In a Facebook post, the Prime Minister endorsed “the accuracy and serious implications” as outlined in a statement summary prepared by Minister of Energy Stuart Young.
Young had earlier released a statement in response to a column written by former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine headlined “Facts, fiction and freedom of information” published in the Sunday Express.
Young accused Ramnarine of attempting to shift the blame for non-negotiation of gas supply contracts to the National Gas Company (NGC) and its officers. He said Ramnarine “forced” the NGC into the only contract that he negotiated which turned out to be a loss-making contract to the tune of billions of dollars.
He said, “The record reflects that both NGC officers and public servants advised Ramnarine, in writing, not to enter into the CGCL contract and he still forced same. The country would also do well to be reminded that it was under Ramnarine’s tenure as Minister of Energy that the United National Congress (UNC) bled billions of dollars in cash from NGC and had NGC build the Beetham Waste Water plant and even refurbish and build recreational grounds in hand-picked UNC constituencies.”
Young said the former minister displayed his incompetence by suggesting that in the energy sector one does not begin negotiating future gas supply or gas sales contracts way in advance of their expiry.
“One cannot wait until the expiry of a gas supply contract to negotiate a new one as a gas production project takes years to bring to fruition,” he said.
The explanation provided by Ramnarine, he said, confirmed why Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector was in rapid decline in terms of both oil and gas production by the time Ramnarine and the UNC left office in September 2015 and why both gas supply and gas sales contracts expired without being renewed as same were never discussed or negotiated between 2010-2015.
Young said the People’s National Movement (PNM) Government and NGC have between 2016-2023 negotiated and re-negotiated scores of gas supply and gas sales contracts on behalf of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.
And he listed the restructuring of Atlantic LNG (ALNG) as one of the examples.
Young said both oil and gas production declined significantly during the People’s Partnership Government, as no new gas supply contracts were negotiated.
PM: Weighty Matters
In his Facebook post, Rowley stated that as Prime Minister there were a few very weighty matters that attracted and required his direct involvement over a protracted period of time in order to have an urgent successful outcome to save the day and the future of Trinidad and Tobago.
Among those, he said, was resuscitating, revitalising and saving the energy sector, including the restructuring of Petrotrin.
Rowley said his government was also required to manage the society and economy during the Covid-19 pandemic, respond to an escalating crisis of violent crime and widespread criminality and Local Government Reform.
The prime minister said his government was also working on modernisation of the tax collection systems and reduction of waste in the budgeting process and elimination of corruption.
“We have had significant successes in these priority areas but there is a lot more to be done. Suffice it to say, that we have identified the main challenges, have engaged them and are on the right track,” he said.
What Ramnarine wrote
In his column, Ramnarine stated that he was responding to criticisms by the PNM regarding the issue of the NGC and its contractual relationships in 2015.
He said the NCG had contracts with upstream companies that supply it with natural gas, and contracts to supply natural gas to its customers.
“For the last nine years I have heard it said that the PNM, upon coming into office, found all these contracts expired or that there was a failure to renew or re-negotiate any contracts.
This is a vile attack on the dedicated professionals at the NGC. Moreover, it is illogical and betrays either a total lack of understanding of how the sector works or a deliberate attempt to diminish the achievements of the period 2010 to 2015,” he said.
Ramnarine accused the PNM of attempting to deflect from the woes afflicting the energy sector, including the collapse of natural gas production, the death march of the oil industry, the 56 per cent decline in the number of persons with jobs in the sector, a now—decaying refinery and the pellucid industrial decline of the last nine years.
He said, “The facts are that in 2015 the NGC had ten contracts with its suppliers, none of which had expired when I demitted office.”
This, he said, had been corroborated by written reply from the NGC to Fishermen and Friends of the Sea (FFOS), dated October 3, 2023, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Ramnarine said of the ten contracts that NGC had with its upstream suppliers, nine were due to expire between 2017 and 2024, with the largest one expiring in 2018. And, he said, it would be illogical for any of the parties to consider renewing any such contracts which still had years to run.
Ramnarine added that, with regard to the upstream suppliers, there was no pressure from any of them to renew their contract that early, as that would be tantamount to their making a commitment to supply natural gas for which projects had not yet been fully developed or were being planned.
“Additionally, at that time the Ministry of Energy was finalising the Natural Gas Master Plan (completed in August 2015), which would have provided an informed view on the road ahead,” he said.
He further explained that the low Government revenue in 2016-2017 was due to a collapse in prices and falling production.
However, it is incontrovertible that without these incentives there would be no Juniper, Angelin, Matapal and Cypre, and the economy would have long collapsed, he said.
