By Prior Beharry
AT least four plants on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate are down following what is being described as a safety incident at a Woodside offshore production facility.
In a release on Friday, the Ministry of Energy stated, “One of the major upstream natural gas suppliers in Trinidad and Tobago has had to shut in its gas production as it deals with an unplanned technical issue.
“This unfortunate and untimely issue has led to a significant reduction in current gas supply which in turn has affected the end users of gas.
“This unforeseen event is being given the priority urgent attention that is necessary by the upstream entity.
“It is hoped that the situation will be resolved in the shortest possible timeframe.”
The National Gas Company (NGC) also stated that one of its major upstream suppliers of natural gas has been forced to shut in its gas production due to an unplanned technical issue.
It stated, “This development has unavoidably impacted the supply of gas to downstream consumers. While some plants were already down for maintenance, others have had to be taken offline due to this shut-in and reduced available volumes.”
Neither the ministry nor NGC mentioned Woodside in their statements.
Opposition MP David Lee asked if there was a crisis in the country.
In a statement, he said, “It is distressing and disturbing given the critical importance of the downstream sector to our national economic stability that reports have emerged of the shutdown of Proman’s M2 and M3 plants as well as the Tringen 1 and Nutrien 03 plants due to a lack of natural gas supply.”
On Tuesday, Woodside had stated that it shut in offshore production operations as a precaution following a process safety incident. It stated that all personnel were accounted for and were working to resume operations.
Ministry of Energy data show that in 2022 Woodside Energy was the third largest producer of natural gas
in T&T, with an output averaging 351 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d).
Out of the 2.6 billion scf/d prodcued, Woodside accounted for 13 per cent of total natural gas production in that year.
T&T’s largest natural gas producer is bpTT followed by Shell.
This issue of 4 plants shutdown is symptomatic of how the country is govern and lack of vision by the Paedophile National Movement. They are now contemplating a synergy and nexus with Guyana and Surinam hoping that it will bear fruit. However this relationship might be a pie in the sky with respect to our relationship with Guyana. Our relationship with Guyana has been soured by this PNM government and more importantly they way they supported a Granger. The PNM Govt and their eat ah food SCs went so far as to provide counsel for Granger Govr to stay in office. Concomitantly KR has on several occasions made disparaging statements about Guyana. I suspect the Paedophile National Movement has the same sentiments about Surinam. For the nexus with Guyana and Surinam to benefit TT it is imperative for a change of Govt in TT