By Prior Beharry
ATLANTIC LNG Train 1 is nowhere close to coming online.
This was stated by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre on Monday.
He was responding to a question from AZP News about reports from Reuters and the Express Newspapers that Trinidad and Tobago aimed to restart the LNG unit by the first quarter of 2027 after it restructures the facilities ownership and negotiates new gas supplies.
Atlantic has four trains and train one was suspended in 2020 following a shortage of gas supply.
Dr Rowley said, “I don’t know where that came from but people publish anything in T&T. As a matter of fact in all the discussion I have been in, that (starting back Train 1) is not part of it.”
He said the issue right now was for more gas for Trains 2, 3 and 4.
Dr Rowley said, “Whoever writes that story that person is not familiar or is ignoring the fact of what we have been doing to maintain our level of production because remember every day we consume 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas.
“If we do get some replacement gas, the first thing we have to do is to use that gas to prevent our consumption from falling below the current level. So it’s replacement gas.
“To talk about Train 1 in the context of that article about some a new field being found or opening up and then that will cause Train 1 to open; that is coming from a source that knows nothing what they’re talking about.”
He said, “We have a shortage of gas with respect to the infrastructure we have in this country that is what Minister (of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart) Young has been talking in Washington, all along telling the decision makers that we have spare capacity and to use that spare capacity, you have to have raw gas to keep your current level and go beyond the current level to a higher level.
“So that question about Train 1, and I couldn’t figure out who the source was because the article was without foundation.”
