Young promises CNG filling station for Tobago

ENERGY Minister Stuart Young has promised to look into the possibility of Tobago having its own Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) filling station.

Speaking on Tobago Updates on Thursday, Young said Tobago's not having any CNG stations came as a shock to him.

“I was surprised when I came in as Minister of Energy, that there is no CNG filling station in Tobago. So I asked immediately that the subsidiary of the NGC group what is going on with that, I am pursuing it.”

He said a few weeks ago, Senator Laurence Hislop spoke with him on a number of Tobago issues, and one was thelack of a CNG fuel station. He said former chief secretary Ancil Dennis also raised it during his tenure.

“It is something I intend to get delivered for Tobago. It is Trinidad and Tobago, and we have to have a proper filling CNG station in Tobago.”

He said the metrics may not work in terms of the numbers of CNG vehicles.

“It is a chicken-and-egg situation. Let us put down the CNG. You deserve the infrastructure, you deserve the investment, and I’m determined to get it done. So I am going to follow up on it.”

He said the island has a CNG depot, as there are a few CNG buses, but now is the time to better the services and make them more available to the people of Tobago.

In 2015, the THA promised one acre in the southwestern part of the island for the construction of a CNG filling station.

Then Chief Secretary Orville London and Secretary of the Division of Infrastructure and Public Utilities (DIPU) Gary Melville held meetings with state-owned National Petroleum Marketing Company (NP) and the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) to discuss plans for the new station.

A committee was set up and three prospective sites earmarked, with London saying that based on that report, the assembly would be in a position to determine the way forward. He said several issues restricted possible sites, including the need to lay a gas line from the plant at the Cove Industrial Park.