Former
finance minister: T&T could be politically stranded
The
Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com 02 12 06
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.
The
Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday 8th February, 2006
