Page 10 - LatAmOil Week 20 2022

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

Work at the Olmeca refinery construction site is due to be finished this year (Image: LopezObrador.org.mx)
The news agency’s report could not immediately schedule in mid-2022.
be confirmed. As of press time, neither Pemex Many industry experts believe this is
nor the Secretariat of Energy (SENER) had com- unlikely and that the company may not be able
mented on the matter. to do more than launch token pilot production
Nahle had said in April that the price tag for schemes.
the Olmeca refinery had risen to $9.8bn because Pemex is building the Olmeca refinery
of the expanding scope of the project. She noted with the support of Mexican President Andres
that Pemex had decided to ensure the refinery’s Manuel Lopez Obrador. The president aims
ability to operate independently by construct- to ensure that the NOC retains its leading role
ing a co-generation plant, an aqueduct and a within Mexico’s fuel and energy sector, and he
65-km natural gas pipeline, and explained that sees the refinery project as a means of ensuring
these efforts had driven costs up by $900mn. that all Mexican oil production can be refined
However, she also claimed that the plant was locally and ensure that domestic petroleum
still on track to begin commercial operations on product supplies remain plentiful and cheap. ™

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Former energy minister urges Trinidad and

Tobago to employ creative economic policy

KEVIN Ramnarine, the former energy minis-
ter of Trinidad and Tobago, stated in a LinkedIn
post last week that he believed creative thinking
would be necessary for the island state to over-
come the decline in its economic growth.
In his post, Ramnarine noted that in 2021
Trinidad and Tobago had seen natural gas pro-
duction slump to its lowest level in 18 years.
“It seems going forward, it will be hard to keep
the nation’s production above 3bn cubic feet
[84.96mn cubic metres] per day,” he remarked.
According to the former minister, the recent
bump in revenue arising from high gas prices Former Minister Kevin Ramnarine (Photo: LinkedIn)
and recent increases in production levels is not
enough to offset the country’s flagging economic The country’s struggle to maintain output is
performance. To make for these disappoint- connected to the closure of Atlantic LNG’s first
ments, he said, Trinidad and Tobago must push production train and several gas-based produc-
production levels up further. tion facilities at the Point Lisas industrial estate.

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 20 19•May•2022