(Trinidad Guardian) The Government is proposing a billion-dollar synthetic crude oil (syncrude) plant in La Brea as a boost to the energy sector. Establishing a downstream industry at the plant to generate revenue for the economy also forms part of the plans which were unveiled to Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine by The Reliance Group on July 6, at the Inter-national Financial Centre, Port-of-Spain. Ramnarine and Reliance met to discuss the proposed investment to take the energy sector forward. Reliance has the largest refinery in the world, named Jamnagar in the state of Gujarat. Ramnarine said if things went according to plan, US$1billion would be invested during the period 2012 to 2014, with a further investment of US$3 billion in capital expenditure beyond 2015. Reliance also held talks with Science, Technology and Tertiary Education Minister Fazal Karim who noted that the merger of the two countries was an excellent opportunity for collaboration “in a bilateral way.”
Karim said T&T stood to gain in the area of human and skills development as well as training in science and technology from Reliance, since they were the leaders in business experience and knowledge worldwide. Insisting that nothing had been finalised, Ramnarine said the proposed project would have to be considered by the Government and “needed to be thoroughly evaluated by Cabinet before anything progresses.” Ramnarine said his number one priority was to increase oil production since T&T was producing below 100,000 barrels per day. A possible location for the plant, Ramnarine said, was La Brea, the same spot at which the then PNM government had planned to establish an Alutrint smelter plant, which the People’s Partnership Government scrapped upon assuming office last year. To produce syncrude, Ramnarine said mined asphaltite from Colombia would be shipped to T&T and blended with our natural gas and other feed stock from the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, which would then be exported back to India. “But there are opportunities to go further downstream in T&T, which we are looking at. What we will be doing is taking low-value products such as asphaltite and the feed stock to create the syncrude.”
‘Thousands of jobs to be created’
T&T, Ramnarine said, was selected over other oil producing countries across the globe because of “our similar value chains, stable business climate and availability of human capital”. If the plan is given the green light, Ramnarine said, thousands of jobs would be created in construction, training operations and maintenance. There would also be knowledge exchange programmes in which local engineers would be involved in a feasibility study. “We expect several thousands of jobs to be created in the construction phase with local recruitment for operations and maintenance. “The company shares our view that local employment, knowledge transfer, including training and education, health, safety and the environment are critical features of any future project. It is certainly an interesting proposal by a leading corporate giant.”
Ramnarine noted that there was potential for further investments to expand the facility. Among the plans, Ramnarine said, was a green belt which would ensure zero discharge of effluent. Around the green belt, Ramnarine said, crops, mainly mangoes, would be produced. “Reliance is committed to the highest environmental and safety standards. It is a highly reputable company, and one with the financial resources to successfully invest in and implement such a large greenfield project in Trinidad and Tobago,” said Ramnarine. Though Ramnarine was unable to say how many barrels of syncrude is likely to be produced annually, since this would be determined with the evaluation of project according to world energy prices, he sees the discussion as a step in the right direction.
