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Opinion
Clean energy is a winning issue and Trinidad and Tobago should claim and own it. The wider Caribbean has always had hurricanes due to its geographical bearing, but storm intensity has increased in recent decades due to climate change. Climate change science has clarified the problem with fossil fuel emissions, it has educated people whose lives are being adversely impacted by fossil fuels, and will lead to sustained investment for Caribbean economies, if weaponised.
The recent “fake oil” allegations at Petrotrin has helped propel public discussion on how efficiently the country monitors its oil and gas production. For better or worse, the issue has generated not only salacious stories in the press but actual interest in the existing checks and balances to monitor production. It is clear that the ramifications of lax monitoring can be crippling. In fact, there are billion dollar ramifications if the country does not correctly quantify its energy production, particularly in this current environment of low global oil and gas prices and declining national production.
Local content has been a key issue for the Energy Chamber ever since I joined the organisation thirteen years ago. Unfortunately, it seems be an issue a bit like the elusive “diversification”; something we spend a lot of time talking about but making very little progress towards achieving.
Sovereign wealth funds are relatively new. They have been devised as a defensive measure to address the macroeconomic impact of revenue volatility in resource rich countries. Other objectives include ensuring inter generational equity, addressing future financial needs, and protecting a country’s economy from extraordinary shifts in its fiscal situation.
It was clear that Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) had to be restructured. The existing system was wasteful and much of the value went to families who could have afforded to pay university fees — a typical problem with most subsidies. The increase in both the quantity and quality of the cars driven by students and parked on The University of the West Indies (The UWI) St. Augustine campus was testimony to this fact. Means testing is an obvious way of targeting subsidies and a logical policy decision, though I have some misgivings about how the levels have been set and how the process will actually be administered.
In May 2016, I had the pleasure of being one of the business sector delegates who joined the Prime Minister on his official state visit to Ghana. It was my fifth visit to the country, though my first as part of an official Government delegation.
The message that I took away from the feature presentation by Filipe Calderon, former President of Mexico, to the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business Distinguished Leadership and Innovation Conference was that leadership is about taking decisions, even when they are tough and unpopular. Calderon’s presentation, delivered in a humble and often self-effacing manner, was both fascinating and inspiring.
The recycling movement locally has been gaining some momentum in recent years, at least in terms of awareness, even if action is still confined to a relatively small sector of the population. There are more bins and recycling points throughout the country than ever before, even if many of them are filled with rubbish.
There is an advertisement on the radio for communication training service that ends with a most dubious declaration that “It is not what you say, but how you say it”. While this statement that ‘style trumps content’ might be true in one of the hallowed governance institutions of our country where any content is allowed once one conforms to the rules of the Speaker, it is certainly not an operating principle for communications in the world of business.
Sanctity of contracts. This is probably an unexpected first line in an article advocating the need to renegotiate contractual arrangements however it is a very relevant consideration. Sanctity of contract refers to the principle that once a party enters into a contract, that party will honour its contractual obligations.
The Paris climate pledges submitted through the system of Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) action plans aim for global decarbonisation. The Trinidad & Tobago pledge includes the concept of a Caribbean Carbon Market (CCM) hosted by the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago. The market plan has been vetted by Bloomberg New Energy Finance and was showcased at its 2015 summit in New York City.
In addition to the real and perceived negative socio-economic effects of low oil and gas prices and record low production levels, in Trinidad and Tobago (where God is alleged to have been born/naturalised), weak macroeconomic statistics have given rise to public disagreement on whether the economy is in a recession.
Since the announcement in early December by the Governor of the Central Bank that Trinidad and Tobago has experienced its fourth consecutive quarter of negative economic growth, the “R” word is becoming more commonplace in conversations – recession.
The state sector (defined as including any entity that requires taxpayers’ money to meet the cost of its core activities), is not immune to the current harsh realities facing the country. The foreseeable economic climate, should be forcing organisations to critically examine their business model, cost structure and the way they do business.
The 60th anniversary year for the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago is coinciding with what is likely to be a very challenging year for the global energy sector and the Trinidad & Tobago economy, primarily due to the very low commodity prices.
Two days before Christmas a front-page headline in the Business Express claimed that there had been 2,800 “oil job cuts and counting”. The article, by Aleem Khan, went on to explain that jobs in the oil and gas sector declined from 21,700 at the beginning of 2015 to 18,500 by mid-year – a 15% drop. This sounds extremely alarming and the journalist paints a picture of a crisis in employment brought about by the low price environment. But is this really what the data is telling us?
The introduction of new government players and policy actors into the energy sector usually requires a period of relationship building for the main energy companies.
At the Launch of the 2015 World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report on October 1st , 2015 Minister of Planning, Camille Robinson-Regis, noted Trinidad and Tobago’s ranking at position 89 out of 144 countries, for the second consecutive year.
Crude oil production (i.e. non-condensate production) in Trinidad declined from a peak of 229,527 barrels of oil per day in 1972 to an average of 66,784 barrels of oil per day in 2014. Based on a projection of this historical decline, crude oil production in 2020 and 2030 will be in the order of 50,000 barrels of oil per day and 20,000 barrels of oil per day, respectively.
The Caribbean energy sector is ripe for change – its long-standing dependence on fossil fuels has ensured that citizens pay some of the highest energy rates in the world.
