Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

As at Ju­ly 31, 2023, Ni­Quan En­er­gy Trinidad Lim­it­ed (Ni­Quan) owed US$22,275,711 to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Up­stream Down­stream En­er­gy Op­er­a­tions Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (TTUDEO­CL).

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young con­firmed this in Par­lia­ment on Fri­day in re­sponse to ques­tions from Op­po­si­tion MP David Lee.

Young re­spond­ed to ques­tions con­cern­ing TTUDEO­CL, which ter­mi­nat­ed its con­tract with Ni­Quan En­er­gy Trinidad Lim­it­ed (Ni­Quan) in Au­gust 2023, he point­ed out.

Young said: “No mon­ey is owed to the TTUDEO­CL by the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed (NGC) as of Oc­to­ber 31, 2023.

“TTUDEO­CL, in ac­cor­dance with pro­vi­sions un­der its con­tract with Ni­Quan, ter­mi­nat­ed the said con­tract in Au­gust 2023 due to non-pay­ment of in­voic­es. This mat­ter is now the sub­ject of ac­tive le­gal pro­ceed­ings be­tween TTUDEO­CL and Ni­Quan and thus sub ju­dice.”

On oth­er queries on the fu­el sub­sidy, Young said: “For the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022 to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, diesel and kerosene at­tract­ed a sub­sidy at the pump. For the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022 to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, the val­ue of the sub­sidy paid for diesel fu­el was TT$1,095,956,361.

“For the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022 to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, the val­ue of the sub­sidy paid for Su­per gaso­line was TT$9,552,519.00 (sub­sidy was gen­er­at­ed in Au­gust and Sep­tem­ber 2023).” Young al­so said for the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, the val­ue of the sub­sidy paid for Pre­mi­um gaso­line was ze­ro dol­lars.

“And for the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, the val­ue of the sur­plus earned from the sale of diesel fu­el was ze­ro dol­lars.”

He fur­ther stat­ed:

• For the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, the val­ue of the sur­plus earned from the sale of Su­per fu­el was TT$152,852,325.

• For the pe­ri­od Oc­to­ber 1, 2022, to Sep­tem­ber 30, 2023, the val­ue of the sur­plus earned from the sale of Pre­mi­um fu­el was TT$119,803,658.

“The net sub­sidy paid by the Gov­ern­ment on all mo­tor fu­els for the pe­ri­od in ques­tion was, there­fore, $832,852,897. Fur­ther, the sub­sidy and re­bate for LPG (cook­ing gas) for the pe­ri­od in ques­tion was $270,904,007, for a grand to­tal of $1,103,756,904 in sub­sidy of pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts in fis­cal 2023.

Young said: “Ad­di­tion­al­ly, in fis­cal 2022, the to­tal sub­sidy on mo­tor fu­els was $2,406,657,492 and the sub­sidy and re­bate for LPG was $362,200,914 for a grand to­tal of $2,768,858,406 in sub­sidy of pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts in fis­cal 2022. It should be not­ed that over $500 mil­lion of the $2.738 bil­lion li­a­bil­i­ty for the sub­sidy in fis­cal 2022 rolled over in­to fis­cal 2023.”