CEO of Atlantic LNG Dr Philip Mshelbila has confirmed that the company will be extending the life of Train One.
This year, Atlantic LNG Train One celebrates its 20th year in operation.
Earlier this year BPTT said there would be challenges to the gas supply to Train One after 2019 and there was even talk that the Train One operations could have been mothballed.
However, Mshelbila has put all that to rest saying they are hard at work getting Train One back on track.
“I cannot comment on Yara as I am not familiar with the organisation or the reasons behind their closure but in terms of Train 1, I must say that we see a future for Atlantic and if you go to Point Fortin you would find we are doing a turn around to try to extend the life of Train 1. So that is ongoing work at the moment. There still remains other commercial decisions that our shareholders need to take and those are pending. At the moment work is ongoing and there is a turn around to continue to run Train One into the future. So that is positive news. In a week or two we should be done with the turnaround and be back in service.”
Mshelbila spoke yesterday at a Rotary Club luncheon at the Rotary Club in Port-of-Spain.
He said as new gas finds are made, Atlantic will continue to explore opportunities in this area.
He added that Atlantic is working to adapt its business model to the evolving business environment.
“We are looking at our people do and we have the talent for the long term future. We are looking at technology and how we can apply technology to our business and so digitalisation is something that we are looking at very closely. As you know Atlantic does not just play on the local scene and our competitors are global.”
He spoke about Atlantic’s contribution to T&T.
“Atlantic is a significant contributor to T&T’s economy. Since 1999, when it started operations to 2005, it contributed significantly to the tripling of T&T’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Atlantic was not exclusive but one of the contributors to that, contributing $2.5 billion in terms of taxes and other ways. Atlantic continues to do so.”
Apart from Point Fortin, he said Atlantic has focused on other communities in the country in educational, social and business spheres.
He said the upstream energy sector contributes a lot of revenue, is considered high capital but very low in human development.
Dr Mshelbila added that Atlantic also has a programme that helps locals to develop small businesses.
The Loans for Enterprise and Network Development (LEND) is a microfinance programme that they offer.
“So far we have done 500 of these totalling about $14 million and these go to people who want to set up or grow their businesses. This program is one of my favourites because it helps people to become economically independent but they are also able to employ others,” he said.