In 2010, the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny gave fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance to un­spon­sored, tra­di­tion­al (sin­gle pan) bands, and small and medi­um-sized, con­ven­tion­al steel bands. The com­pa­ny al­so as­sist­ed sev­en or­gan­i­sa­tions in­volved in host­ing Car­ni­val 2010 cel­e­bra­tions in such com­mu­ni­ties as Rio Claro, Tu­na­puna, Down­town Port-of-Spain, Cou­va, La Brea, Cara­pichaima and the Car­rera An­nu­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion. In a state­ment, NGC said 38 un­spon­sored sin­gle pan bands re­ceived back­ing this year, of which 19 qual­i­fied for the se­mi-fi­nals, and 11 made it to the fi­nals. "These tra­di­tion­al pan sides have con­tin­ued to per­form at a high stan­dard, de­spite the lack of much-need­ed fund­ing," NGC said.

Among those re­ceiv­ing spon­sor­ship, La Hor­quet­ta Pan Groove placed first in the fi­nals for the fifth con­sec­u­tive year, while Unit­ed Sounds Steel Or­ches­tra placed third. The com­pa­ny pro­vid­ed an ad­di­tion­al in­cen­tive to the se­mi-fi­nal and fi­nal qual­i­fiers. Small and medi­um bands in "NGC's fence­line com­mu­ni­ties, rang­ing from Ma­yaro to Laven­tille and, in­clud­ing To­ba­go, al­so ben­e­fit­ed from as­sis­tance for their par­tic­i­pa­tion in Panora­ma 2010." "We are proud that four of the 12 bands as­sist­ed in this cat­e­go­ry made it to the fi­nals, with Steel Xplo­sion plac­ing first in the medi­um band cat­e­go­ry.�Over­all, NGC as­sist­ed 50 steel­bands this year, with 30 per cent of them qual­i­fy­ing for the fi­nals.�

NGC said it al­so sup­port the par­tic­i­pa­tion of Good­will In­dus­tries of the West In­dies in Ju­nior Panora­ma, a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion which pro­vides vo­ca­tion­al and re­me­di­al train­ing for per­sons with phys­i­cal and men­tal dis­abil­i­ties. It said Good­will In­dus­tries gave a sol­id ac­count of them­selves in the fi­nals, re­ceiv­ing a spe­cial prize in the sec­ondary school cat­e­go­ry. "As a ma­jor state or­gan­i­sa­tion, we feel it our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to help pre­serve the arts and cul­ture of T&T in this way. We see Car­ni­val as an im­por­tant part of the na­tion­al tourism pack­age that in­volves op­por­tu­ni­ties for artis­tic and en­tre­pre­neur­ial de­vel­op­ment.

"Even more than this, Car­ni­val is a cel­e­bra­tion of who we are as a peo­ple and NGC seized the op­por­tu­ni­ty to as­sist in pre­serv­ing Car­ni­val and steel pan through­out the coun­try," read the state­ment.