THERE are mixed reactions to the announcement that the Dr Keith Rowley-led Government in Trinidad and Tobago will be licensed to move forward to develop the Dragon Gas Field as T&T has received the US Government’s agreement through an OFAC waiver to develop the field.
This is really a breakthrough development which the PM said that Trinidad can access up to 350 million cubic feet of gas per day from the Dragon field.
There is excitement over this development as it can mean much-needed life support for our energy sector. T&T is Latin America’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, and can process a capacity of 4.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) into LNG, petrochemicals and power.
It’s gas production is just under 3 bcfd now though. So it’s really important for the Government to move swiftly to ensure a contract is in place with Venezuela on this Dragon gas and make it operational.
Given how difficult it is to deal with Venezuela and the complications with their political stability, the business chambers are still very optimistic. It all depends on T&T’s ability to access the natural gas from the Dragon Field and hopefully, it can mean a major boost to our economic prospects.
Natural gas is a major contributor to earning foreign exchange and the economy in T&T and the US has recognised the importance of having increased capacity and production to assist global energy security, especially during this time of the energy crisis due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
T&T production levels have been declining in recent years causing slow down in downstream plants in Point Lisas. This boost can foster increased LNG production and increase exports of downstream products such as ammonia and methanol but these are long-term gains and the government must move quickly to carve out a proper deal with Nicolas Maduro.
The Venezuelan regime will not be able to receive any cash payments from this project as stipulated by the US Government and this could make things very difficult for us to come to an agreement with Venezuela. Also it could take years for this field to come onstream and bring Venezuelan gas to T&T and boost LNG.
Many other experts also are not so optimistic as the recent announcement can not fix the energy sector overnight and seeing gas from this field is years away. This field although with all the detractors can be good for T&T in years to come, however, the Government has to take stock of the energy sector and must try to rebuild it as oil and gas production are at its lowest for the last 15 years and their track record hasn’t been this best so far.
The sanctions against the Venezuela oil company PDVSA have remained, and there are obviously many hurdles to overcome and we all are hoping that the Government can pull this one off, as previously stated their track record so far hasn’t been good to implement any major fiscal incentives that would drive the production of oil and gas up since their party came into power.
The current Government has not handled previous energy crises properly and there is an enormous perception of suspicion and lack of confidence in the way the Government handled so far the whole state of affairs of the death of the divers that occurred in Paria, far less the still outstanding sale of Petrotrin, and what is generally going on in the energy sector.
The information being released in the public domain sometimes seems surreal, freakish and bizarre with the amount of issues we have in our Energy Industry. The Government generally has not engendered confidence in this industry at all in the past, from the shutting down of Petrotrin to the opening up of the new companies which have had one issue after another.
Still, with all that, T&T has been waiting to hear some good news for a long time and we are hoping that the Government can get their act together and nail down a proper contract to get gas from the Venezuelan’s Dragon Field because when gas does come we can finally see a small light at the end of the tunnel, and possibly better electricity rates and less possible economic hardship for all.
There has been a black cloud lurking over us for such a long time since this PNM Government took the reins of power, we need a light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dim it is.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive. He is also the treasurer of the UNC and a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration MBA, BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.
Dragon Field Gas: Government Must Get its Act Together
THERE are mixed reactions to the announcement that the Dr Keith Rowley-led Government in Trinidad and Tobago will be licensed to move forward to develop the Dragon Gas Field as T&T has received the US Government’s agreement through an OFAC waiver to develop the field.
This is really a breakthrough development which the PM said that Trinidad can access up to 350 million cubic feet of gas per day from the Dragon field.
There is excitement over this development as it can mean much-needed life support for our energy sector. T&T is Latin America’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, and can process a capacity of 4.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) into LNG, petrochemicals and power.
It’s gas production is just under 3 bcfd now though. So it’s really important for the Government to move swiftly to ensure a contract is in place with Venezuela on this Dragon gas and make it operational.
Given how difficult it is to deal with Venezuela and the complications with their political stability, the business chambers are still very optimistic. It all depends on T&T’s ability to access the natural gas from the Dragon Field and hopefully, it can mean a major boost to our economic prospects.
Natural gas is a major contributor to earning foreign exchange and the economy in T&T and the US has recognised the importance of having increased capacity and production to assist global energy security, especially during this time of the energy crisis due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
T&T production levels have been declining in recent years causing slow down in downstream plants in Point Lisas. This boost can foster increased LNG production and increase exports of downstream products such as ammonia and methanol but these are long-term gains and the government must move quickly to carve out a proper deal with Nicolas Maduro.
The Venezuelan regime will not be able to receive any cash payments from this project as stipulated by the US Government and this could make things very difficult for us to come to an agreement with Venezuela. Also it could take years for this field to come onstream and bring Venezuelan gas to T&T and boost LNG.
Many other experts also are not so optimistic as the recent announcement can not fix the energy sector overnight and seeing gas from this field is years away. This field although with all the detractors can be good for T&T in years to come, however, the Government has to take stock of the energy sector and must try to rebuild it as oil and gas production are at its lowest for the last 15 years and their track record hasn’t been this best so far.
The sanctions against the Venezuela oil company PDVSA have remained, and there are obviously many hurdles to overcome and we all are hoping that the Government can pull this one off, as previously stated their track record so far hasn’t been good to implement any major fiscal incentives that would drive the production of oil and gas up since their party came into power.
The current Government has not handled previous energy crises properly and there is an enormous perception of suspicion and lack of confidence in the way the Government handled so far the whole state of affairs of the death of the divers that occurred in Paria, far less the still outstanding sale of Petrotrin, and what is generally going on in the energy sector.
The information being released in the public domain sometimes seems surreal, freakish and bizarre with the amount of issues we have in our Energy Industry. The Government generally has not engendered confidence in this industry at all in the past, from the shutting down of Petrotrin to the opening up of the new companies which have had one issue after another.
Still, with all that, T&T has been waiting to hear some good news for a long time and we are hoping that the Government can get their act together and nail down a proper contract to get gas from the Venezuelan’s Dragon Field because when gas does come we can finally see a small light at the end of the tunnel, and possibly better electricity rates and less possible economic hardship for all.
There has been a black cloud lurking over us for such a long time since this PNM Government took the reins of power, we need a light at the end of the tunnel no matter how dim it is.
Neil Gosine is an insurance executive. He is also the treasurer of the UNC and a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He holds a Master’s in Business Administration MBA, BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.