MP Lee: Young producing more untruths than oil & gas

If Minister Young was producing oil and gas as the level of untruths he continues to mislead the population with, this country’s energy sector would not be in this state of decay it is in due to seven years of this Government.

After seven years of crisis in the energy sector and a tenure of total failure by Minister Young as Energy Minister, it is no mystery why Minister Young’s presentation at Monday’s Mid-year review was deceitful, dishonest and not based on reality.

Four years later, facing the guilt and shame of knowing that had the refinery been operational today, millions would have been generated to meet our national expenses, Minister Young peddled lies that Petrotrin was a drain on the state and forex, all in an effort to hide the fact that they have robbed the people of this nation revenue from the refinery.

How could Petrotrin have been a drain on forex when in the 2017 Budget the Minister of Finance told us ” Petrotrin contributes to the country’s foreign exchange earnings as it sells crude oil products throughout the Caribbean”?

How could Petrotrin be so unproductive as Young portrayed when the Minister of Finance speaking in the 2017 Energy Conference told the nation “You should note that the major oil producer at this time in our nation is Petrotrin, which accounts for almost 50 percent of the country’s total production. Petrotrin is therefore the key to improved oil production in T&T in the short and medium term”?

Maybe Minister Young doesn’t understand the word decimate, but to criticize the PP for decimating the energy sector while his own Government became the first to register seven consecutive years of no growth in the energy sector is nothing but hypocritical.

For Minister Young to condemn oil & gas production under the PP administration shows a Minister that has no remorse for the fact that this Government has driven gas production to an 18 year low after seven consistent years of failing to meet production targets, robbing this country of the windfall.

It is ridiculous that Minister Young continues to say this country has extra capacity to produce LNG when Natural gas production is below the estimated production of the budget. Isn’t Minister Young aware that LNG is Liquified Natural Gas?

It is no surprise that Minister Young’s presentation focused on 2010 to 2015 because had he focused on the tenure of this Government he would have had to account why veteran companies like Yara and Mittal closed plants, why the most plant closures at Point Lisas occured, why Train one is no more, why NGC made its first ever loss, why year after year they promise deep water bids but never do it, why year after year they promise incentives but never fulfill them to the point companies are moving to Guyana.

If the CNN interview suggested that Minister Young is deluded in his view of the energy sector, Monday’s presentation proved he is deceitful when it comes to the reality of our energy sector.