On top of the $4 billion which the PNM Government squandered on the aborted World Gas-to-Liquids (WGTL) plant, comes a $250 million waste on Train 1 of Atlantic LNG. The Rowley Government spent that sum of scarce money to revitalise the plant at Point Fortin even though it was as clear as daylight that there was no natural gas to fuel the operations.
National Gas Company was aware of this, as were the other international energy stakeholders, which pulled out of the move. NGC wasted $250 million and ended up losing $2.1 billion in its most recent fiscal year.
As it was with the WGTL scandal, the PNM regime is not taking responsibility for the ALNG wreck. In a dose of hogwash, Energy Minister Stuart Young said that negotiations on natural gas supply are at a “sensitive stage.”
But similar gas issues led to the shutdown of several Point Lisas plants and the displacement of thousands of professionals. The Government has refused to face the realities of the energy world, in which cheaper shale gas is easily available and the United States is a net exporter of natural gas.
Trinidad and Tobago was one of the largest producers of methanol in the world until the dramatic change in the natural gas value chain.
As with everything it touches, the PNM has wrecked the energy sector.