Raphael John-Lall
Geopolitical factors such US sanctions on Venezuela as well as business decisions of energy multinationals have all impacted on T&T’s declining gas industry.
These are some of the contemporary developmental issues covered in the revised edition of the 2014 book on T&T’s gas industry and its relationship with Venezuela authored by local social researcher and author Daurius Figueira.
The new book has a publishing date of March 2024 and can now be purchased by the public.
The cost of the paperback edition which has eight chapters and 275 pages is US$14.99 and can be purchased on Amazon.
Figueira told the Business Guardian that the first edition of “The Geo-politics of LNG in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela in the 21st century” was published in 2014. That book presented a comparative analysis of the plan by then Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez for developing Venezuela’s oil and gas industry, which included the development of the offshore gas reserves of Venezuela namely the Deltana platform, the Mariscal Sucre project and the Cardon 4 Project, as well as the development of the LNG sector of T&T from the second half of the 1990s to 2013.
“This first edition then presented an analysis of Chávez’s plan of development for offshore Venezuela gas in the context of the discourse that underpins the planning document titled: ‘Sowing the Oil’ which included a treatment of the geopolitics of Venezuelan energy and the Caribbean region exemplified by the Petro-Caribe programme.
In the case of T&T, the discourse of the natural gas economy articulated by BP officials was presented and deconstructed to reveal BP’s agenda for LNG in T&T given its position as the largest single gas producer for the gas sector of T&T. The terrain of gas exploration and production, mergers and acquisitions amongst gas players for the period were also analysed, as was the creation and expansion of Atlantic LNG to four trains.”
Figueira explained why the revised edition of the book is needed at this time.
“The 2014 edition highlighted Venezuelan energy realities under President Chávez with details in English not readily available to the to the reader with no Spanish language capability. In addition to the analysis of the creation and evolution of the LNG sector of T&T across time/space. The death of Chávez, the leadership of Maduro after Chávez, the assault of the USA on Venezuela and the worsening gas production shortfall in T&T since 2013 demanded the revised edition of 2024. Raising questions that only the passage of time will reveal the outcomes.”
According to a summary of the book’s revised edition on Amazon, this updated edition presents the developments in the gas sectors of Venezuela and T&T from 2014 to 2024 thereby analysing the pressing reality of the impact of geopolitics on the LNG sector of both T&T and Venezuela in the 21st century.
“Likewise, the evolution of the gas production shortfall and the measures slated to mitigate this shortfall in T&T, including the dance with Venezuela for the supply of Venezuelan gas to the gas sector of T&T which involves the grave risk of US unilateral coercive measures impacting the gas supply relationship with Venezuela with telling impact on the gas sector of T&T must be analysed.”
Train IV
According to Atlantic LNG’s website, at the time it was constructed in 2005 and for the first few years of its operation, Train IV was the world’s largest LNG train, with a capacity of 5.2 million tonnes of LNG per annum. Train 4 began its commercial operations on May 1, 2007 and also supplies Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) to Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd (PPGPL) under a long-term agreement.
Figueira said the creation of Train IV in T&T is of significant importance to understanding the present collapse of gas production in T&T, which is dealt with in detail in the book.
“The first edition ends in 2013 with the fall in gas production in T&T already evident and it continued to worsen since then. The death of President Chávez in 2013, the nature of President Maduro’s governance since then, the application of unilateral coercive measures by the USA and its impact on the Venezuelan economy and social order literally threatening to force Venezuela back into the stone age and the worsening gas production shortfall of T&T forcing it to return to Venezuela seeking a gas supply as it did with Train IV and the continuing threat of US unilateral coercive measures demanded a revised edition of the book to bring it up-to date as at March 2024,” he said.
He opined that the refusal of bp and BG to accept the gas deal offered by President Chávez for feeding Train IV and the decision to run Train 4 only with T&T’s gas is what has created this gas supply crisis today.
“Train IV was designed to only run on Venezuelan gas feedstock, so why then build the plant when the offer of Venezuelan gas was refused by BP and BG? Any return to the unilateral coercive measures of the Trump presidency will mean no Venezuelan gas supply to T&T and the heightening of a gas supply crisis in T&T to the gas sector with the negative impact on the economy heightened. It is clear in 2024 that the gas majors of the Western countries present in T&T are now hedging their bets as T&T now has capacity but an inadequate local supply of gas feedstock to maximise profit from that capacity. We are now a beached LNG whale!” Figueira said.
He is also doubtful about T&T’s ability to turn around its gas production and the economy anytime soon given the country’s historic underdevelopment and over reliance on the energy sector.
“Our gas reserves are now at the stage where the future is the deep water, which remain an unknown entity until development drilling begins. At what price per million standard cubic feet would this deep-water gas cost the end users? Already the Republicans and Trump are preparing us for a return to the days of the Trump presidency but the second time around it will be on steroids given the US war on China and Russia and the final solution applied in Gaza. Can a neo-colonial, neo-liberal economy addicted to foreign exchange it does not earn, but loves to spend, build it way out of this debacle with export propelled growth? To-date they have indicated no vision, capacity and willingness to bite this bullet,” said Figueira