Misinformation and inaccuracies.
This was how Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs, Kevin Ramnarine, summed up Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley’s speech to the Energy Chamber on Wednesday.
“Misinformation and inaccuracies were delivered to the country’s most prominent energy business association, the Energy Chamber,” Ramnarine told the media at Thursday’s post-Cabinet press conference.
Ramnarine came to the conference armed with a list of what he said were eight corrections to statements Rowley made about the government’s energy policies and projects. The Opposition Leader arrived at his conclusions without basis, Ramnarine said, and shared little or nothing about the oil industry and upstream energy sector.
Rowley focused on natural gas, but without the upstream sector there would be no Point Lisas Industrial Estate or Atlantic LNG plant, the minister said.
Stating that the upstream sector stagnated for years under the former PNM administration, Ramnarine listed his corrections.
He said Rowley told the chamber the US$2 billion AUM 11 complex that Methanol Holdings (Trinidad) Ltd (MHTL) was planning to construct at Point Lisas had not been realised.
Ramnarine said the project was discontinued under the People’s Partnership but he attributed this to mismanagement under the PNM. He said the discontinuance of the project was mainly the result of a conflict between MHTL’s two contracting companies, Clico and CEL, a consortium of German companies.
This issue, which went on from 2011 to 2014, had its genesis in the mismanagement and mishandling of the Clico matter under the PNM, he said.
Ramnarine also corrected Rowley’s statement on the halting of the aluminium smelter project which was initiated under the PNM.
The minister said in 2009 the High Court shot down the Certificate of Environmental Clearance which was granted for the start of the project by the Environmental Management Authority. In 2010, when the Government came into power, it discontinued the project because of the concerns raised by citizens and environmental activists.
Rowley told the Energy Chamber that the Essar Steel project was also cancelled. Ramnarine said that was not true. He said when the Government came into power, Essar Steel had already withdrawn significant interest in the project. Continuing his corrections, he tackled Rowley’s claim that LNG exports to the US in 2009 were very good, whereas today they were below 20 per cent and dropping.
Ramnarine said there was an error in the units used to measure natural gas in that period. Further, Rowley neglected to mention to the chamber that the majority of the country’s natural gas was no longer exported to the US but to new markets, including South America. Rowley, who indicated there would be staff shakeups in the public sector if he were to become prime minister, said his government would put the best people to head state companies, while the Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs would be staffed with experienced and qualified professionals.
Ramnarine said the Opposition Leader’s comments suggested the current staff at the Energy Ministry was not experienced, qualified or professional. “This is an extremely unfortunate position to arrive at,” the minister said, given that over the last five years, under the present ministry staff, the Government had secured 21 new production-sharing contracts worth $2 billion.
“This was an unprecedented achievement,” he said.
The same ministry also collaborated with the Ministry of Finance and presided over the reformation of the fiscal regime of the energy sector, he said. “This led to a surge in investments from 2011 to the present time.”
Rowley also lamented the loss of the jewel of the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.
However, Ramnarine recalled that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between former Clico boss, Lawrence Duprey, and former PNM finance minister Karen Nunez-Tesheira to sell Clico’s shares in MHTL as far back as 2009. Disputing Rowley’s claims, Ramnarine insisted, “The energy sector continues to be strong and robust and attract investments and be a major contributor to GDP.”
Energy Minister’s view on merger
Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said, in his view, the planned merger of Royal Dutch Shell and the BG Group would be a good thing for T&T. Shell, he said, had deeper pockets than most companies in oil and gas. Ramnarine said the merger, the story of which broke in the international media last week, would take about a year to finalise.
Shell had contacted him to inform him of a letter for Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar about the matter, which she had received. The Prime Minister would be meeting with Shell, he added.