Pointe-a-Pierre MP demands NiQuan report

Opposition United National Congress (UNC) member and Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee, on Sunday rejected the Prime Minister’s comments on the release of a NiQuan Energy Trinidad Ltd accident report that he said was protected because NiQuan was a private entity.

Lee was referring to an expected report on an investigation into a fire at NiQuan's gas-to-liquids plant in Point-a-Pierre on June 15. Massy Energy Engineered Solutions employee Allan Lane Ramkissoon died on June 18 after being injured in the incident. Probes have been started by the Energy Ministry and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA).

In Parliament last Tuesday, Lee asked Dr Rowley if Ramkissoon's family would be able to access the report.

In response, Rowley said such reports were guided by commercial and legal controls.

"It all depends on what the report is and whose report it is. But once the circumstances and the legal authorities permit, then the relevant minister would make that commitment. I would not presume to make it.”

He later added, “If it can be made public under the specific authorities, then it will be. If it’s, on the other hand, a report coming from the company, then of course, we have constraints.”

On Friday, in response to questions from Newsday, NiQuan said, "Any reports will be private and confidential and cannot be published. However, we will be able to communicate a synopsis of the findings as appropriate."

At a UNC media briefing on Sunday, Lee claimed multiple times that the NiQuan plant was a government entity because it was built by taxpayers’ money.

“Billions of taxpayer’s money was spent to build the gas-to-liquid plant at Petrotrin, placing Petrotrin in severe debt before it was sold at a peppercorn rate to NiQuan by this government.”

Lee also claimed that the natural gas supplied to the NiQuan plant was approved by the government to come from the Energy Minister’s "share of natural gas."

He said, “As a matter of fact, this government created a new company called the TT Upstream, Downstream Gas Co just to sell NiQuan gas.”

Lee also spoke of fuel, saying government was overcharging for it. He said retail fuel prices in TT should have decreased, as promised by the Prime Minister in the budget debate last October, based on a decrease in global oil prices.

“The Minister of Finance and Prime Minister have failed to respond, acknowledge or even refute our claims that citizens are being overcharged for the price of fuel, because they know we are correct.

"We are three months away from the budget, and I want the population to remember that during the last budget the government raised the price of fuel for a sixth time.”

Fuel prices are currently $7.75 for premium, $6.97 for super and $4.41 for diesel, prices set by Finance Minister Colm Imbert when he said oil was still US$90.

A barrel of oil now costs US$81, according to Wall Street, and seeing this, Lee asked why the prices have not decreased yet.