ANDRE WORRELL
Former minister of energy Conrad Enill says the gas sharing agreement to be signed on Monday between T&T and Venezuela for the Dragon gas field is a step in the right direction.
He said because of production and maintenance issues, gas supply to the petrochemical and other industrial sectors had been severely curtailed.
"T&T currently has a major gas shortage problem, as is well known, and this problem has been negatively affecting the petrochemical sector and other segments of the energy industry and costing them a lot of money," Enill said.
He added that the agreement will give investors renewed confidence in T&T's ability to meet the gas requirements of the energy and industrial sectors.
He said: "What this arrangement does in the medium term is give both governments time to work out the details of the commercial agreement surrounding the optimal sharing of gas in the field, and as such, provides investors in the sector a timeframe within which to indicate to their respective shareholders that the country is working assiduously to resolve the gas shortage issues."
Questioned about how long it would take before gas started to flow to T&T, Enill said that a number of factors needed to be considered.
"The expectations of the Venezuelans with respect to their revenue streams from the sale of the gas and the skills of the negotiators who must work out the details of the agreement will ultimately determine how long the process will take and how soon gas could begin to flow to T&T," he said.
Enill said the deal should be given an opportunity to work as it would redound to T&T's benefit
"Having this arrangement in place, once appropriately negotiated, will go some way in resolving the serious issues of gas shortage currently facing the petrochemical and industrial sector," he said.