AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Trinidad and To­ba­go is aim­ing to be­come a ma­jor provider of clean fu­el.

He made the com­ment as Pro­man and Ste­na Bulk launched its first methanol-pow­ered ves­sel, the Ste­na Pro Pa­tria, out­side the Hy­att Re­gency, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

The ves­sel is said to be the first of its kind, em­a­nat­ing from the part­ner­ship be­tween glob­al methanol pro­duc­er Pro­man and Ste­na Bulk, one of the world’s lead­ing tanker op­er­a­tions.

Speak­ing at the event, Row­ley said T&T needs to do its part in the glob­al fight against cli­mate change and its ef­fects on the at­mos­phere.

“What we’re aim­ing to do is to make Trinidad and To­ba­go a ma­jor re­fu­elling hub for ocean­go­ing ves­sels who can be re­fu­elled by clean fu­el. If that fu­el is avail­able as it is, and if it is close to the trade routes by these ves­sels’ tra­verse as it is… then this dream of be­com­ing the sup­pli­er of fu­el to re­place the bunker fu­el has led Pro­man and is sup­port­ed by the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, to not on­ly sup­ply methanol to per­sons who need it in clean fu­el, but to go one step fur­ther, which is to build ves­sels that are ded­i­cat­ed to us­ing methanol…it is trans­port­ing methanol and burn­ing methanol, how much bet­ter can we be?” Row­ley said.

The PM said in our fight against cli­mate change, there will al­so be room for eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment, thanks to the coun­try’s ge­o­graph­i­cal lo­ca­tion and rich nat­ur­al re­sources.

“Bunker­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go is to be a ma­jor part of our eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment be­cause we have some­thing which we nor­mal­ly will sell to the world thou­sands of miles away, but we can sell it to passers-by right here in Trinidad and To­ba­go as well… it would be a ma­jor, ma­jor de­vel­op­ment with re­spect to the re­sponse in fight­ing cli­mate change is­sues,” he said.

From to­day, the ves­sel is ex­pect­ed to set sail, de­liv­er­ing methanol around the world.

Pro­man chief ex­ec­u­tive David Cas­sidy said with T&T be­ing one of the world’s lead­ers in methanol pro­duc­tion, he is con­fi­dent they will be able to dri­ve for­ward sus­tain­able ship­ping.

“We will help to dri­ve the de­car­bon­i­sa­tion of ship­ping which must lead and ex­ceed glob­al and re­gion­al reg­u­la­tions, ex­ceed­ing the de­mands of our cus­tomers for their tran­si­tion and ex­ceed­ing in­vestor ex­pec­ta­tions. Methanol will play a lead­ing role in the en­er­gy tran­si­tion. It is the on­ly al­ter­na­tive ma­rine fu­el cur­rent­ly avail­able which im­me­di­ate­ly cuts green­house gas emis­sions and re­moves oth­er un­pleas­ant pol­lu­tion,” Cas­sidy said.

Ac­cord­ing to Cas­sidy, the Ste­na Pro Pa­tria was named in ho­n­our for­mer Methanol Hold­ings Trinidad Lim­it­ed (MHTL) CEO Den­nis Patrick, who was in­stru­men­tal in the project up un­til his pass­ing in 2019.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go is known around the world for the cal­i­bre of its petro­chem­i­cal, op­er­a­tional plant man­age­ment ex­per­tise. And to­geth­er, we can help de­vel­op the next gen­er­a­tion of low-car­bon and re­new­able methanol plants. There’s al­so op­por­tu­ni­ty in the ma­rine sec­tor of the fu­ture, such as our first group of cadets trained here at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and now trav­el­ling the world on board this ves­sel,” Cas­sidy said.