Rowley: No plans to import US LNG

TT is not at the moment considering importing liquefied natural gas from the US, the Prime Minister said yesterday.

“Wherever the price is right you look at it. I don’t know that we are doing that (importing). We want to be able to sell to the market place be competitive, be attractive to investment and therefore able to sell,” Dr Rowley said at the post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday.

He acknowledged the changing world market, where the US, once TT’s primary export market for LNG, is now a net exporter. On Sunday, US President Donald Trump announced the first shipment of LNG was shipped from the Cameron LNG Export Facility in Louisiana.

US technology has in the last five to seven years has improved, Rowely said, and TT has to deal with that. One of the things the US has done is made the price less attractive because there’s more competition.

The US shale gas boom is also putting pressure on TT’s downstream industry – already reeling from gas curtailments – as new downstream plants, like fertilizer, for example, are being built in the US, in direct competition to TT products.

“That is why we are so concerned with encouraging those who are with us to stay with us because the market is changing. We have to build these relationships to make sure we stay in that international business. We can’t tell the US who to sell to or not to sell,” Rowley said.