00:01Methanex and Nutrien and other plants under threat are going to directly affect our forex earnings, jobs, the whole ecosystem,
00:10including the government's revenue, ultimately.
00:15MP and former Energy Minister Stuart Young stressing the opposition's concerns about the announcement by Canada-based Methanex earlier this
00:24week that it is indefinitely idling its large Titan methanol plant after having made the same decision with its Atlas
00:31plant months after another Canada-based company, Nutrien, had announced it had commenced a controlled shutdown of its Trinidad nitrogen
00:41operations at the Point Lisa's facility to be effective.
00:45October 23rd of last year.
00:47With nutrients for plants out, there's additional gas. So we knew it wasn't about allocation of gas, the amount of
00:57gas, what we call the quantity of gas, and it always had to be commercial pricing, and they have both
01:02now, NGC and Methanex, confirm that. That is incompetence.
01:08The NGC stated it could not agree to what it said was what Methanex sought, a gas price that was
01:15significantly lower than that contained in the expiring gas sales contract. On Tuesday, Energy Minister Dr. Rulal Munilal said Methanex
01:24is concerned with their shareholder value.
01:27They are concerned with commercial viability. They have to consider feedstock economics, the methanol market itself, and several issues, gas
01:38allocation, policy. And we are concerned, of course, with the national interests.
01:43We are concerned with the best deal for Trinidad and Tobago. So that in those circumstances, we were aware that
01:49there were points of dispute and so on. But as I said before, that the fact that it is an
01:57idle preservation suggests that the door is open and we can continue dialogue.
02:01MP Young focused on the government's natural gas allocation policy, which he said has electricity generation as the first priority,
02:10then the petrochemical plants in Point Lises and the Atlantic LNG facility in Point Fortin, and then light manufacturing.
02:18Of course, what you're seeing globally right now, because of the conflict that took place over the last few months
02:23in the Strait of Hormuz, and what happened in Qatar, with 20% of the world's LNG coming off the
02:30table because of what is taking place there, is you saw an increase in the price of LNG.
02:33So they diverted gas, they're putting it there, and they're saying, oh, we're making more money, because of the PNM
02:40that negotiated the cargoes, as well as the price of gas that we've explained over and over, the basket price
02:46that you get Asian, you get European, and a third based on oil prices, which has increased.
02:52But don't be so short-sighted from that and Tobago.
02:55Dr. Muniland said plants at Point Lises had closed down operations during the former PNM administration.
03:00MP Young referenced comments in a media report attributed to the governor of the central bank.
03:06When you say, well, NGC's earnings could increase with Metanex's shut down, that is a frightening statement.
03:18The plants that are shutting down at the Pet Chem affect our reputation and many hundreds, if not thousands of
03:25lives.
03:28And those plants would as well be paying Forex in their taxes and paying the service companies in Forex, etc.
03:35As Energy Minister Munilal expressed confidence in what the government says are several projects that will result in an increase
03:43in natural gas supply, MP Young noted the plants at Point Lises employ hundreds of employees, not only directly, but
03:51via what he called the ecosystem of subcontractors.
03:55Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:57Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:57Let's get started.
