Page 8 - GLNG Week 21 2022

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Former energy minister urges T&T to

take creative approaches to economy

POLICY KEVIN Ramnarine, the former energy minister Manatee field.
of Trinidad and Tobago, stated in a LinkedIn Pressure on Shell has continued to mount,
post last week that he believed creative thinking particularly now that BHP (Australia) has devel-
would be necessary for the island state to over- oped doubts about its earlier announced plans to
come the decline in its economic growth. tap into deepwater gas fields offshore Trinidad
In his post, Ramnarine noted that in 2021 and Tobago. The latter company is currently in
Trinidad and Tobago had seen natural gas pro- the process of merging with a fellow Australian
duction slump to its lowest level in 18 years. company, Woodside Energy.
“It seems going forward, it will be hard to keep There have also been some discussions about
the nation’s production above 3bn cubic feet the possibility of developing gas reserves that
[84.96mn cubic metres] per day,” he remarked. straddle the maritime border between Vene-
According to the former minister, the recent zuela and Trinidad and Tobago. However, the
bump in revenue arising from high gas prices sanctions imposed by Washington on Caracas
and recent increases in production levels is not have made such a venture unlikely.
enough to offset the country’s flagging economic With few options for growth currently on the
performance. To make for these disappoint- table, Trinidad and Tobago’s economy has lan-
ments, he said, Trinidad and Tobago must push guished, marking a lengthy decline over the last
production levels up further. few years. Monitoring the situation closely are
The Caribbean country’s struggle to main- officials in Guyana, who are looking to prevent
tain output levels is connected to the closure of a similar situation from happening to their own
Atlantic LNG’s first production train and several country. Guyana is experiencing growth in both
gas-based production facilities at the Point Lisas the oil and the gas sectors, and its government
industrial estate. Port of Spain does hope to off- has decided to continue diversifying the econ-
set these setbacks, and the success of its efforts omy rather than relying heavily on hydrocarbon
hinges partly on efforts by Shell (UK) to develop resources like Trinidad and Tobago has done.™
the 2.7 trillion cubic feet (76.46bn cubic metre)

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