JOEL JULIEN

The Pro­man Group has an­nounced that it will be im­me­di­ate­ly restart­ing its M4 and M5000 plants at the Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate, fol­low­ing the re­sump­tion of an in­ter­im gas agree­ment with the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny.

At the start of this month Pro­man, this coun­try's largest pro­duc­er of methanol an­nounced it would be idling the two plants.

In a re­lease is­sued to­day, NGC and Pro­man said the in­ter­im agree­ment would be put in place while the com­mer­cial terms of a long-term gas sup­ply are be­ing fi­nalised.

Pres­i­dent of NGC Mark Lo­quan said the ne­go­ti­at­ing teams have had "very con­struc­tive dis­cus­sions" to forge a path for the short term while al­so re­main­ing fo­cused on longer term col­lab­o­ra­tion.

Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of Pro­man, Claus Cron­berg­er, said restart­ing the plant will bring im­me­di­ate ben­e­fits to the gas val­ue chain and the na­tion­al econ­o­my.

Mean­while, Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, Stu­art Young MP, has said he is pleased at the news the Pro­man plants have restart­ed.

An of­fi­cial state­ment from the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries not­ed:

“Min­is­ter Young had been com­mu­ni­cat­ing with both the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (NGC) and Pro­man through­out the re­cent weeks and wel­comes the fact that par­ties reached an agree­ment that led to the restart of M4 and M5.”

The Min­istry’s state­ment al­so said it will con­tin­ue mon­i­tor­ing the ne­go­ti­a­tions for a long-term gas sup­ply agree­ment and will be com­mu­ni­cat­ing with the re­spec­tive par­ties.

“These agree­ments and arrange­ments are part of the land­scape of a so­phis­ti­cat­ed gas sec­tor that is adapt­ing to the many changes in the glob­al en­er­gy sec­tor and the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries will con­tin­ue to play an ac­tive role in en­sur­ing the fu­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go and pro­tect­ing the in­ter­ests of the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” the Min­istry’s re­lease said.