TT gas no longer attractive

Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Nitrogen Company Jerome Dookie makes a point during an interactive session of the tour.
Chief Executive Officer of the Caribbean Nitrogen Company Jerome Dookie makes a point during an interactive session of the tour.

THIS country is no longer an attractive destination for gas-based industries owing to the unreliability of natural gas supplies, Caribbean Nitrogen Company (CNC) CEO Jerome Dookie said during a presentation at the company’s Point Lisas Industrial Estate facility on Thursday.

“I think capital will always follow where it gets the best return, and in terms of new projects being built, TT is no longer an attractive destination because the feedstock availability is questionable and the pricing is higher,” he said.

“Certainly the United States now, driven by the shale gas, is a preferred destination for capital, so that new construction projects would tend to be attracted to those jurisdictions.”

Asked whether local gas fields were mature and in decline, Dookie said: “Admittedly mature, and the reality of the situation is that there is not enough gas supply now to meet the overall demand, so logically you wouldn’t expect to see people lining up to build new plants in the country, and the basic reason is you would not get a gas contract.”

Caribbean Nitrogen Company CEO Jerome Dookie, left, with Ricardo Mohammed during a tour of the company’s facilities in Pt Lisas.

The company was thrust into the national spotlight in late January after a forced shutdown of its ammonia plant when the National Gas Company cut off gas supplies. After several weeks of intense behind-the-scenes negotiations, the two announced on March 14 that an agreement had been reached on the “key commercial terms” of a gas supply. The formal agreement was later signed in April.

Questioned about the gas agreement, Dookie declined comment except to say that an agreement had been reached and the company preferred to “focus on the future and not the past.”

“The issue between NGC and CNC has been fully settled now and we are looking at going forward now and leaving the past behind us,” he said.

Asked about damages, he said: “Yes, it has been settled.” In an intense question-and-answer period, he said the gas price which had been agreed to by both parties “is significantly higher and there is a significant amount of risk to the downstream producers going forward.”

Asked whether this had affected the company’s bottom line, he said, “Reduced profits, definitely, and in some cases lower ammonia prices add to that.” Asked how he felt about the actions of NGC, he said, “I think for us, we would really try to look forward rather than back into that period. We have a situation now where we are moving forward, we’ve had a successful business over the years, and we want to focus on maintaining that relationship now with the State entities that we rely upon to continue our business.”

Dookie said the decision to go into DeNovo Energy, which is also part of the Proman group, was based on the natural-gas supply shortage to the CNC plant. “The decision to go into DeNovo was driven by the shortage of gas supply to the ammonia and methanol business place that remains the primary driver,” he said.

Asked whether the DeNovo gas would be going into the national grid or directly to the company, he said, “The negotiations are ongoing right now and I imagine that would be determined.”

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