(Trinidad Guardian) Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart Young is confident that Trinidad and Tobago will return to “the heights of gas production” from 2027, as he led a strong defence of the Government’s energy policies in the Parliament on Friday.
He vigorously refuted the Opposition’s excitement over a Reuters article hinting at the collapse of the Manakin-Cocuina gas deal with Venezuela due to BP’s withdrawal, during debate on the Mid-Year Budget Review.
Young revealed that the Government had quietly been working with the United States government on this particular deal as he and Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley travelled to Washington DC earlier this year.
“I was in the White House in Washington DC, meeting with those persons who advise the decision-makers, talking about the need for Cocuina-Manakin and how it fits into the geopolitics and the role Trinidad and Tobago will play in energy security throughout the region and in Europe, putting down the platform for that deal,” Young said.
He said after the prime minister met with US vice-president Kamala Harris, the Government applied for the licence “very quietly, very competently”.
“Last week, I was able to announce that for the second time, the US Government has granted to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago a specific OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) licence now to do Cocuina-Manakin. I’ve heard nothing from the other side. Not one of them has said that’s good for Trinidad and Tobago.”
He argued that no member of the Opposition would have been in a position to negotiate such an agreement for T&T but had instead been calling for both him and the prime minister to be sanctioned for doing business with Venezuela.
“But now we could stand here and know that in 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, T&T is going to return to the heights of gas production as a result of the work that we have done. And compare that to the period of 2010 to 2015 where the only energy deal that the UNC negotiated is one that is costing us billions of dollars in losses,” Young said.
Just days prior to the 2015 general elections, the People’s Partnership Government inked a multi-million dollar deal with Mitsubishi Corporation, the National Gas Company and Massy Holdings to develop a methanol plant in La Brea, with an investment totalling TT$1 billion.
He said NGC officials had warned the People’s Partnership government not to sign the agreement because of its financial implications for this country.
Young said that, conversely, the agreements this administration brokered will positively impact the country’s future and noted that the government is already seeing returns from some of these arrangements.
“I can say today as well to the Minister of Finance, you have a cheque for $33 million coming to you…US…coming to you in the next few days as the latest payment for something called ‘enhanced revenue’, that we negotiated. US$33 million is the latest payment for enhanced revenue. We have earned $18 billion from negotiations that Trinidad and Tobago would not have gotten a cent for,” he said.
“Two days ago, we got the best scorecard the country could get from the IMF (International Monetary Fund). That hurts them,” he continued, referring to the Opposition.
The minister again refuted claims that the Petrotrin refinery would have been a foreign exchange earner if it was operating today.
He said that while the refinery was functioning in 2008, oil production was over 100,000 barrels per day and the fuel subsidy was $3 billion.
He noted that by 2013, the subsidy went up to $4.9 billion and by 2014 it was $7.2 billion.
“That is $13 billion spent in two years with the refinery open,” he said.
“It is a complete untruth, and there is no substantiation of that submission, that if the refinery was open there would be less subsidy,” he said.
Young also challenged the Opposition’s argument that the Government had led the country into too much debt, saying that in September 2010, under the People’s Partnership government (of which the UNC was the leading party), the country’s net debt was $45.4 billion, and by the time that government left office, it had risen to $76.5 billion.
He added that during that five-year term, the People Partnership had borrowed tens of billions of dollars.
“You borrowed over $30 billion during your time. You had no COVID to deal with. You had higher gas (production) and prices. You had higher oil production. The population must remember that,” Young said.
