Newsday ( Trinidad and Tobago )
25 April 2023 ( Page 18 )
McGuire: TT tops EITI ranking in Latin America
Air TT Extractive Industries for Transparency Initiative chairman Gregory McGuire. TRINIDAD and Tobago has topped the extractive industries for transparency initiative (EITI) ranking in Latin America. TTEITI chairman Gregory McGuire made the disdosure during a virtual forum cohosted by the group and the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) on Thursday. The EITI is a global standard for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. It seeks to address the key governance issues in the extractive sectors. Founded in June 2003, EITI is headquartered in Norway. TT is among the 57 countries which are EITI members. The EITI regularly does validations on all its member countries to see how its members are following its standards set for the good governance of oil, gas and mineral resources. McGuire said on March 1, said TT achieved a score of 89 out of 100 in its EITI valuation. He added this "turns out to be thehighest score in Latin America?' TTEITI is pleased to have been able to bring the country to this level of reporting on its extractive industries. McGuire attributed one of the factors contributing to this rating is the collaboration between government, energy sector companies and civil society with respect to accounting for the use of TT's energy resources. He described this collaboration as "an outstanding example of tripartitism and how it can work in the interest of the people?' McGuire recalled that in 2022, TT benefitted greatly from increased energy sector revenues. He identified the ongoing RussiaUkraine war as one of those contributing factors. "At that time we saw Brent crude oil prices rising to US$144 per barrel?' McGuire also said during that period there were increased revenue collections from energy companies in TT "which reached nine year highs?' But he observed that the global energy sector is dynamic. McGuire said trends over the last four months "suggest that oil prices are already trending downwards?' He added that oil prices are expected to average around US$ 84 per barrel in the short term. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent crude oil were trading at US$77.65 and US$81.25 per barrel on Thursday. McGuire reminded participants that when Finance Minister Colm Imbert presented the 2022/2023 budget in Parliament on September 26, 2022, the budget was pegged against an oil price of US$94 per barrel He recalled some commentators felt it was a bit optimistic to peg the budget against that oil price McGuire also observed there have been declines in the prices of natural gas and petrochemical products.. Referring to TTEITI's 2022 extractive industries report, McGuire said ensuring that TT has sufficient natural gas reserves also remains important for the country's development. "In this context, the promise about the Dragon field (located on the Venezuelan side of the TTVenezuela maritime boundary) as well as south of the border (Guyana's energy sector) become very, very important." In the report, TTEITI said in 2022, WTI oil prices averaged US$98 per barrel compared to US$68 in 2021. Henry Hub natural gas prices have averaged US$7.70 per mmbtu in 2022 compared to US$4.06 per mmbtu in 2021. TTETI added, "These energy commodity price increases will likely be fleeting and analysts from the IEA International Energy Agency) and US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predict a dampening in demand for energy due to inflationary pressures. MCGuire welcomed the April 12 sod turning in Couva for a new solar power plant. He said this was an important step in TT's transition towards renewable energy. The plant is one of two which are part of Project Lara, joint venture comprised of multinational energy giants by and Shell, and specialist solar energy company Lightsource bp. The two plants will have a combined capacity to generate a total of 112.2 mw of solar electricity. In October 2021, Imbert said the estimated cost to build the plants is US$100 million.