I just know this Chavez thing is going to come back around to where we can't ignore the guy any longer. I didn't know that our supply of Liquid Natural Gas had risen to as high as 70% to the US though. Wow.
------------ While T&T is in the midst on an energy boom, it could find itself estranged from its Caribbean and Latin American neighbours, former finance minister Wendell Mottley said yesterday. Mottley was speaking on Current Petroleum Politics: Its Effects on the Caribbean at the South Trinidad Chamber's energy conference. "We are indeed in a season of high politics...a season in which, I predict, politics will trump economics every time." As the title of his presentation suggested, he explored political developments within the hemisphere, including the efforts President Hugo Chavez to strengthen ties among his Latin American counterparts and Chavez' growing dissatisfaction with energy multinationals. "I speculate that President Chavez, self-styled champion in the fight against 'neo liberal economics,' may be unhappy with T&T's model of energy industrial development, relying as we do on large multinationals such as BP, BG, EOG, etc as prime movers," Mottley said. "This model contrasts with Venezuela's, Mexico's and, increasingly, Brazil's and Bolivia's model of tight state control over their petroleum resources." He added that this unhappiness could be delaying the cross border agreement which would govern gas reserves straddling the Venezuela/T&T border. The move to state control, he said, comes at a time when energy companies are enjoying healthy profits bouyed by high oil prices. Mottley said although T&T supplies 70 per cent of the US LNG market, this country cannot rely on support from the US against criticism from Latin America. He added that Venezuela's PetroCaribe initiative is also weakening T&T's position in the Caribbean. While PetroCaribe has come quickly into force, he said, T&T's initiatives like the Caribbean gas pipeline and the Jamaica LNG terminal are taking long to get off the ground. "When a balance of T&T and island interests is being served and the Caribbean is again speaking with one voice, T&T must then decisively seek the support of Brazil and Mexico, with the region's assistance, in delicately balancing our position between our revolutionary neighbour, only seven miles distant and our commercial and social ties with North America and Europe," Mottley said. ---------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:196438 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
