Caption: Stuart Young
By Alicia Chamely
MINISTER of Energy and Energy Affairs Dr Roodal Moonilal is being warned to keep theatrics out of the serious business of the energy industry.
In a sharply worded response on his Facebook page, former minister of energy Stuart Young struck back at Moonilal’s claims that himself and his cabinet overlooked an error in the pricing matrix of agreement between the government and energy companies, Woodside and bp, that would have resulted in a $7 billion loss in national revenue.
On Friday, Young stated, Moonilal’s blaming him and the oversight “reeks of desperation.”
He said, “The pricing matrix that he refers to would have been prepared by the technical staff at the Ministry of Energy and vetted by the technical staff, including the permanent secretary. I do not know what are the specifics that he is referring to, but I am confident that it was not due to any ‘error’ on the part of the cabinet nor myself.”
Young accused Moonilal of trying to “hoodwink” the population by stating that he had reclaimed the lost revenue.
Referring to Moonilal’s claim as “pathetic”, Young said, “Woodside and bp have not taken a decision to produce this block so any claim of recovered revenue is fictitious and based on conjecture.”
Adding, “In fact, Minister Moonilal should advise the country if Woodside are still pursuing the deepwater project “Calypso” or if they are preparing to shut down their operations and depart Trinidad and Tobago.”
Young, taking aim at Moonilal’s performance in the ministry thus far, said, “Minister Moonilal is struggling to prove himself in his new role and is out of his depth. He continues to grasp at straws whilst surviving off of the work that was done previously.”
Saying, Moonilal’s claims of gas deals Grenada, Suriname and Guyana have “evaporated,” Young warned, “Moonilal would do well to keep the theatre out of the serious business of the energy sector.”
At Thursday’s post-cabinet press conference at the Red House, Port of Spain, Moonilal revealed that Woodside had approached the ministry, informing them that an “error” was made in a deal sealed by the former cabinet.
Moonilal said this error would have resulted in the loss of just over US $1billion in revenue.
He said he had ordered a probe into the error and to be “informed” if Young had direct involvement in this oversight.
