Young defends Energy Ministry over fatal NiQuan blast report

FORMER energy minister Stuart Young has defended the ministry’s handling of the investigative report into a fatal accident at NiQuan Energy Ltd’s gas-to-liquids plant in 2023.

In a statement on social media on June 8, Young said during his time as minister, the Ministry of Energy acted under the advice of independent state lawyers and a senior counsel.

He said that NiQuan did not agree to the report being shared. He said this could have created legal problems for the ministry and its staff if the report had been released without proper approval.

He said if the High Court had ordered the disclosure of the report, then it was the ministry’s duty to follow the ruling.

In a ruling on June 6, High Court judge Avason Quinlan-Williams said the refusal by the ministry to disclose the report on the explosion which led to the death of Massy Energy pipefitter Allanlane Ramkissoon to his widow was unlawful.

She said it was in the public’s interest to make the report public. Ramkissoon, a father of two young children, was a plant fitter with Massy Energy Engineered Solutions Ltd and one of its workers who was deployed to carry out certain modification works to parts of the plant at NiQuan on June 15, 2023.

While he was doing so, the explosion occurred, resulting in him sustaining extensive burns.

Ramkissoon died three days later on June 18, 2023, after being airlifted from Piarco International Airport to a hospital in Colombia.

In her ruling, the judge said the ministry had not presented sufficient evidence to justify its decision not to disclose the information that was requested by Ramkissoon’s widow in November 2023 under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

In an immediate reaction, Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal criticised the former minister.

However, Young said Moonilal’s criticism was unfair and misplaced.