Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie yesterday said Venezuela's Petrocaribe initiative, which supplied oil to some countries in the region at discounted prices, was unlikely to be sustainable.Speaking in his capacity as acting Minister of Energy and Energy Affairs at the launch of Caricom Energy Week yesterday at the Hyatt, he said: "The Venezuelan PetroCaribe Initiative provided a partial and temporary solution for this but this solution is unlikely to be sustainable.
"The issue of subsidised prices has been raised but in today's world, with every country having its own challenges and the global system in a state of uncertainty, that is not really feasible."PetroCaribe is an alliance of mainly Caribbean and Central American countries with Venezuela to purchase crude oil at discounted and deferred prices.
The payment system allows for purchase of oil on market value for five per cent to 50 per cent up front with a grace period of one to two years; the remainder can be paid through a 17-25 year financing agreement with one per cent interest if oil prices are above US$40 per barrel.
Petrocaribe member countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, S. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Venezuela.
Tewarie said one possible solution to high oil prices for small Caribbean islands was international financing options offered to purchase natural gas from T&T."But the practicality of this is that a mutually satisfactory solution will have been found in the short to medium term for all countries, and given this new comfort level, alternative energy solutions can be vigorously pursued thereafter," he said.
He told the Caribbean delegates about T&T's plan to make liquified natural gas (LNG) for buses a priority, and reiterated promises made by some of his Cabinet colleagues about constructing an LNG gas station on the Priority Bus Route."The DiMethyl Ether (DME) solution, possible in about five years if all goes according to plan with the Mitsubishi project, will also create a relatively low cost, clean energy solution for the region," he said.
In April, the Mitsubishi Corporation of Japan signed a project development agreement with Neal & Massy and the government of T&T to construct a US$850 million plant in La Brea to convert natural gas into DME and methanol. DME is mixed with diesel in some parts of Europe and China to bring the price of that fuel down.
"Solar, wind, geothermal and even wave energy needs to be pursued on a collaborative basis throughout the Caribbean," Tewarie said. "This collaboration should include researchers from the region but also researchers from outside. Geographically much of the sun is ours. The wind is ours. The ocean surrounds us.
"Any geothermal resources that we can tap are ours. We offer the world an opportunity to be part of Caribbean sustainability solutions. And whatever is learnt, discovered or created here will be transferable to other parts of the world, so we will not only create collaboratively with others in the world but we will contribute beneficially to others in the world."
