Category

Juniper’s first gas date has been three years in the making. BP approved the project in mid-2014 and TOFCO started construction of the platform in November 2014. Its approval was predicated on many factors. The largely misunderstood accelerated capital allowances that were in the...

By Kevin Ramnarine In 2013, Conoco Phillips informed the Government of T&T they were selling their 39% stake in Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited (PPGPL). The reason – restructuring aimed at an increased focus on their upstream business. Their departure, on the...

By Kevin Ramnarine In 2014, at an Annual Technical Meeting between BP and the Ministry of Energy, I said that the most important economic relationship in T&T was the relationship between BP and the Government of T&T. Today, T&T accounts for 17% of BP’s global...

by Kevin Ramnarine In 1977, Margaret Thatcher (not yet PM of Britain), speaking at the University of Zurich called for a “revolt against excessive taxation”. Excessive taxation had stagnated Britain in the 1970’s. In 1979 when she became Prime Minister she reinvented the British...

By Kevin Ramnarine The Ministry of Finance has signalled the re-introduction of Property Tax. Most of the population already know it’s the law, they know it’s not new and they know it obtains in other countries. However, it is debatable whether it is being re-introduced at the...

By Kevin Ramnarine In my four years as Minister of Energy, the biggest problem I faced was the shortage of natural gas. The Prime Minister has said we failed to deal with it. This is not correct. In fact, had we not taken the action we took, the country would be in a far worse...

By Kevin Ramnarine Last week BP announced that it would not be fabricating the Angelin platform in La Brea. Angelin is BP’s next major gas development project in T&T. It follows on from the Juniper project which is getting ready to start production. The overall investment in...

By Kevin Ramnarine Last week the Prime Minister (PM) visited Houston and met with BP, Shell and others. Following the meeting his office announced that BP was planning to invest US$ 5 billion in T&T in the next five years. This is nothing new, comes as no surprise and is the...

By Kevin Ramnarine Last Wednesday in Parliament, Stuart Young said I never told the country about the curtailments of natural gas supply. He declared that I had continuously blamed it on maintenance and blamed it on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He said, “So, you didn’t...

By Kevin Ramnarine In the early 1980’s when the first oil boom had come to an end, the late Prime Minister George Chambers famously remarked “Fete Over Back to Work”. Carnival 2017 is over and we will soon see whether MX Prime is a prophet. With Carnival over the economy and...