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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD><DIV class=bigheadline>Oil in perspective
</DIV><DIV class=byline>Clyde Griffith</DIV>
<DIV class=dateline>Tuesday, March 27th 2007</DIV>
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THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Petrotrin, Trinidad and Tobago's state-owned oil company, that it has lost 60 per cent of its regional market to the PetroCaribe deal offered by Venezuela, requires regional governments to assess once again, our regional relationships.
What is clear from this experience is that Petrotrin could not match Venezuela's terms and has lost control of the market. The new agreement has now forced T&T to seek markets in an environment more competitive than that which obtained in the region.
In the past, Trinidad has been very generous to Caricom. The Trinidadians have shared their petrowealth with their regional partners in ways that have not been always appreciated. And this mad dash to get into bed with Venezuela, while providing some foreign exchange relief to beneficiary countries, clearly demonstrates that at critical times, every man is prepared to look out for self.
What is not clear, however, is whether the regional governments, who have opted for PetroCaribe, gave Petrotrin any opportunity to come up with a counter- proposal. All of the evidence seems to suggest that they did no such thing! If past history is a guide, I am of the view that some arrangements could have been made to allow Petrotrin to offer alternatives.
In 1983, at a meeting held in Trinidad under the auspices of Caricom, the first Regional Energy Action Plan (REAP) was developed. With then Minister of Petroleum, Patrick Manning in the chair, intensive discussions on how the region would deal with energy took place. Over the objections of Jamaica and Antigua, REAP became a reality. </DIV><DIV class=texte>
What Venezuela's actions have taught us is that we must be constantly aware of those decisions which have a desultory impact on our lives, and plan accordingly.
Thus Barbadians are implored to critically embrace the draft Barbados National Energy Policy which has been formulated by Minister Elizabeth Thompson and her staff.
It is a document which requires an understanding and appreciation that energy sufficiency becomes the watchword of every Barbadian. Its unavailability implies dire consequences for our way of life.
The draft document's emphasis on conservation measures and the employment of renewable energy resources is a call to embrace steps designed to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. How disciplined we are in implementing the recommendations will go a long way in showing our appreciation that oil in the ground is a finite resource over which we have no control.
Recognising that a dependency on fossil fuels will not evaporate overnight, The Ministry of the Environment and Energy has also outlined a strategy for exploiting the resources on our continental shelf.
Given the world's reluctance to embrace alternative energy sources, given the gargantuan appetite for fossil fuel resources, and given the potential for generating wealth from exploration and development of such, the decision by the government of Barbados to encourage offshore drilling is realistic and in keeping with what is happening internationally.
The best example at the moment is Angola, a poor country once colonised by the Portuguese.
The country is endowed with vast mineral resources and the major international oil companies have poured billions of dollars into exploration 100 miles offshore.
According to The New York Times, Angola, now producing at 1.5 millions barrels a day, will be reaching production le
</DIV><DIV class=byline>Clyde Griffith</DIV>
<DIV class=dateline>Tuesday, March 27th 2007</DIV>
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD><DIV class=texte>THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Petrotrin, Trinidad and Tobago's state-owned oil company, that it has lost 60 per cent of its regional market to the PetroCaribe deal offered by Venezuela, requires regional governments to assess once again, our regional relationships.
What is clear from this experience is that Petrotrin could not match Venezuela's terms and has lost control of the market. The new agreement has now forced T&T to seek markets in an environment more competitive than that which obtained in the region.
In the past, Trinidad has been very generous to Caricom. The Trinidadians have shared their petrowealth with their regional partners in ways that have not been always appreciated. And this mad dash to get into bed with Venezuela, while providing some foreign exchange relief to beneficiary countries, clearly demonstrates that at critical times, every man is prepared to look out for self.
What is not clear, however, is whether the regional governments, who have opted for PetroCaribe, gave Petrotrin any opportunity to come up with a counter- proposal. All of the evidence seems to suggest that they did no such thing! If past history is a guide, I am of the view that some arrangements could have been made to allow Petrotrin to offer alternatives.
In 1983, at a meeting held in Trinidad under the auspices of Caricom, the first Regional Energy Action Plan (REAP) was developed. With then Minister of Petroleum, Patrick Manning in the chair, intensive discussions on how the region would deal with energy took place. Over the objections of Jamaica and Antigua, REAP became a reality. </DIV><DIV class=texte>
What Venezuela's actions have taught us is that we must be constantly aware of those decisions which have a desultory impact on our lives, and plan accordingly.
Thus Barbadians are implored to critically embrace the draft Barbados National Energy Policy which has been formulated by Minister Elizabeth Thompson and her staff.
It is a document which requires an understanding and appreciation that energy sufficiency becomes the watchword of every Barbadian. Its unavailability implies dire consequences for our way of life.
The draft document's emphasis on conservation measures and the employment of renewable energy resources is a call to embrace steps designed to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. How disciplined we are in implementing the recommendations will go a long way in showing our appreciation that oil in the ground is a finite resource over which we have no control.
Recognising that a dependency on fossil fuels will not evaporate overnight, The Ministry of the Environment and Energy has also outlined a strategy for exploiting the resources on our continental shelf.
Given the world's reluctance to embrace alternative energy sources, given the gargantuan appetite for fossil fuel resources, and given the potential for generating wealth from exploration and development of such, the decision by the government of Barbados to encourage offshore drilling is realistic and in keeping with what is happening internationally.
The best example at the moment is Angola, a poor country once colonised by the Portuguese.
The country is endowed with vast mineral resources and the major international oil companies have poured billions of dollars into exploration 100 miles offshore.
According to The New York Times, Angola, now producing at 1.5 millions barrels a day, will be reaching production le
<P align=center>Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller at a news conference in Port-of-Spain last April. Guardian file photo <P align=center>The perception that is being spread in Kingston is that T&T businessmen are privateers or <P align=center>marauders just waiting to pounce on any available “meat.” <P align=left>ON a Jamaican radio station on Monday, one of the hosts asked me what I thought about the trade war that some elements in the north Caribbean country (including the editorial writers of a major newspaper) are pushing their government to declare on T&T. <P align=left>It is quite understandable that some Jamaicans are hurt by T&T’s apparent inability to fulfil its intention to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Jamaica by 2009. <P align=left>The LNG would lower Alcoa’s cost of production at its alumina refinery in Clarendon and as a result of the cogeneration of electricity, some of the LNG will be passed through to Jamaica’s electricity grid, lowering the cost of production in the wider economy. <P align=left>So I do understand Jamaica’s position on this issue. <P align=left>What I do not understand is the seeming widespread belief in Jamaica that Prime Minister Patrick Manning and National Gas Company (NGC) president Frank Look Kin are being economical with the truth when they attempt to explain why it would not be possible for T&T to supply LNG to Jamaica in two years time. <P align=left>The Jamaicans who are commenting on this issue in the newspapers and on radio stations appear not to understand some of the basics of the LNG business. <P align=left>They appear not to understand that Atlantic LNG, the company that produces LNG in Trinidad, is a commercial entity, that LNG is an extremely capital intensive business that deals in long-term contracts and that T&T is a minority shareholder in the business. State-owned NGC holds a ten per cent stake in Train I and an 11 per cent stake in Train IV and no equity in Trains II and III. <P align=left>The Jamaicans appear not to understand that the natural gas that is liquefied comes from offshore platforms and the enterprise of discovering natural gas and transporting it by pipeline from offshore fields to Point Fortin is an expensive and risky business. And a business in which T&T is the junior partner in all things except tax collection. <P align=left>It is this obvious lack of understanding that led an editorial writer in the Gleaner last week to conclude that the Manning administration was “clearly unwilling to take the kind of political decision that would be required to meet its obligation to a single market partner with which it enjoys a US$500 million trade surplus.” <P align=left>The sentiment in the editorial is that the T&T Cabinet should breach long-term supply contracts with companies which are paying the market price for LNG t
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