Gov’t looks to Qatar for LNG
QATAR may prove to be Government’s ace in the hole in its liquid natural gas negotiations with Caricom partner, Trinidad & Tobago, as Cabinet yesterday gave approval for the establishing of diplomatic relations between Jamaica and that Middle Eastern country.
The twin-island state has indicated an unwillingness to supply LNG at the same price it offers to its local manufacturers, a move that local LNG tsar, Anthony Hylton, has argued violates the tenets of the Treaty of Chaguaramus on which Caricom is based.
Yesterday, Information Minister Burchell Whiteman said LNG discussions with Qatar would provide some leverage for the ongoing negotiations with Trinidad & Tobago.
“Discussions with Qatar on long-term arrangements for the supply of LNG would give us some amount of bargaining power in our continuing dialogue with Trinidad & Tobago aimed at achieving some mutually acceptable arrangement,” he told reporters at a post Cabinet press briefing.
The Middle Eastern country, the minister added, was a good source of LNG, which is touted as one of the cleanest and most efficient sources of energy.
“Qatar is considered a good potential source of LNG supplies to Jamaica, both in terms of volumes and special pricing arrangements,” the information minister said.
Qatar, he added, had expressed “strong interest” in establishing diplomatic relations with Jamaica.
Last July, Hylton, who was then the energy minister, warned that Jamaica may consider trade restrictions against Trinidad & Tobago if it persisted in supplying LNG at a more expensive price than that offered to its local manufacturers.
But in March of this year, the Trinidad & Tobago government made it clear that, despite being its Caricom partner, Jamaica would not receive a “special price” for the purchase of LNG.
The official position was that “the CSME did not properly form part of the LNG negotiations” and therefore such negotiations with Jamaica “would proceed on a purely commercial basis”.
LNG is seen as a vital prong in the Jamaican government’s energy conservation programme, as it attempts to slash a growing fossil fuel bill that was about US$650 million last year.
It is estimated that widespread use of LNG could reduce that by about 25 per cent.
Yesterday, Minister Whiteman stressed that there were, as yet, no conclusive arrangements with either Trinidad & Tobago or Qatar regarding the supply of LNG to Jamaica.