ENERGY Caribbean Yearbook (2013-14)

caribbean gas market
Energy
issues
TT must get moving
Is Trinidad and Tobago moving fast
enough to secure the emerging
market for natural gas in the
Caribbean? Many energy analysts
think not.
At the time of writing, Gasfin
Development SA, the Luxembourgbased
company leading the way in
trying to push the country into making
sales contracts with Caribbean electricity
utilities, had still not been able to line
up an assured gas supply with which to
approach potential customers.
Only about 70 million cubic feet a day
(mmcfd) is required for the first train of
about 500,000 tonnes a year that Gasfin
would like to see sited at the Labidco
industrial estate at La Brea to liquefy gas
for regional export. Perhaps frustrated
by Trinidad and Tobago’s apparent
slothfulness, Gasfin’s CEO Roland Fisher
has hedged his bets by also seeking
permission from the US Department
of Energy to export low-priced shale
gas from a plant he wants to build in
Louisiana.
He was quickly given the green light,
though he now has to clear his 1.5
million tonne per year complex, which
he wants to build in phases, with the
Albert G. Nahas (courtesy Cheniere)
Companie
2020, so Trinidad and Tobago still has the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Gasfin does not expect to be ready to
export LNG from the US much before
opportunity to get in first and capture
the market before Gasfin Development
USA decides to target that customer
base.
One piece of luck for the La Brea
project, which Fisher is calling Project
Constantine, is that his US company, at
least for now, will be permitted to export
only to countries with which the US has
a free trade agreement. Puerto Rico and
the US Virgin Islands (which are part
of the US anyway) and the Dominican
Republic are the only parts of the insular
Caribbean that qualify, so Fisher will be
limited to seeking markets there.
Countries
This leaves 21 other potential markets
in the Caribbean archipelago to which
La Brea LNG could theoretically sell gas.
Even Guyana, Suriname and French
Guiana, the first two of which are
members of Caricom, could be potential
targets.
Gasfin Development USA is not the
only company gunning for the Caribbean
market: Pacific Rubiales in Colombia
is also planning a small LNG export
project. As a competitor, Colombia is an
unknown quantity.
But even if Fisher chose not to try and
sell in the Caribbean, and others such
as Cheniere did, Trinidad and Tobago
might very well hold its own. Albert
G. Nahas, Cheniere’s vice president
for international government affairs,
believes that “Trinidad and Tobago is
perfectly capable of competing in the
Caribbean gas market. After all, gas will
still be cheaper in TT than in most of the
rest of the world, except the US.” Fisher
himself has told this YEARBOOK that
he would prefer to supply Caribbean
markets that materialise from Trinidad
and Tobago rather than the US.
La Brea LNG will open markets near
to home for Trinidad and Tobago
LNG. But it could also present the
country with a unique value-chain
opportunity through the National
Gas Company or its subsidiary, the
National Energy Corporation, not
only in the LNG train itself but in the
ships needed to transport the gas
and the re-gasification facilities at the
receiving end.
At the moment, NGC holds a 10%
share in Atlantic’s train one and 11.1%
in train four, which gives it a quota
of 88 mmcfd. Until recently, this was
sold internationally on its behalf. It has
recently taken back 30 mmcfd to market
on its own account, thus giving it some
experience in these matters prior to any
involvement in La Brea LNG.
Gasfin has been working closely
with EdF, the electricity company in
Martinique and Guadeloupe, with a
view to supplying 200,000 tonnes of
LNG to each French department to run
the gas turbines both are installing.
This would provide a market for 80%
of the capacity of La Brea train one, but
no deal can be struck until a gas supply
from NGC is pinned down.
Roland Fisher (courtesy Gasfin)
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