PM witnesses sign-off on new Atlantic LNG structure

THE AGREEMENT for a new unitised commercial structure of Atlantic LNG (ALNG) was officially signed on Tuesday, an announcement by the Office of the Prime Minister said on Tuesday.

The statement said the Prime Minister witnessed the signing at a commemorative ceremony in London on Tuesday.

The agreement, the statement said, will allow the National Gas Company of TT Ltd (NGC) to get a bigger piece of the pie from revenue garnered from ALNG's sale of natural gas on the global market.

In the new arrangement, NGC will receive a ten per cent shareholding across all four ALNG trains, whereas the previous structure saw the company getting ten per cent of train one and 11 per cent of train four, with no share of trains two and three.

At Tuesday's ceremony, Dr Rowley hailed the agreement as a win for the people of TT.

“We in Trinidad and Tobago, representing the people of TT, feel confident that success will come our way, and that success will be shared more fairly with greater clarity and with greater sustainability.”

At a press conference in London, Rowley thanked stakeholders for their understanding, saying conversations could have been more difficult without the help of the companies involved. He said their listening to the TT Government showed that they “had a heart...

“At every step of the way, the people involved could have said, 'The contract doesn’t have allowed for that and we don’t want to listen to that conversation.

"They could have said, 'We are not in breach of contract so, therefore, there is nothing to discuss.'

"But TT, represented by myself the energy minister, the permanent secretary and others, I think we made the case to you all.

“Many of you understood what we were saying in that we don’t just want to be a tax-collecting office, we want to be a partner and shareholder in this business, particularly given what is happening in the world industry. We have to be a partner, and we have to be involved.”