Energy Minister Stuart Young says Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s statement against the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago represents not only a ‘frontal attack’ on the Chamber but also on the energy multinationals operating in the country.
And as a result, Young is warning the population to pay close attention to Persad-Bissessar’s remarks.
Young made the statement yesterday during his response to the 2025 national budget, following remarks by Persad-Bissessar.
“I heard a frightening submission. We witnessed here today a frontal attack on the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago. I listened very carefully as the Leader of Opposition, aspiring to an office—God forbid she should ever get close to it—say that they will set up a parallel body and they will basically decimate the Energy Chamber, the way they decimated the energy sector between 2010 and 2015. The population needs to take note of that,” Young said.
Young urged the population to consider why Persad-Bissessar would launch such an unwarranted attack against the Energy Chamber and its members.
“So she, the Member for Siparia, has declared war not only on the Energy Chamber today, but has declared war on bp, has declared war on Shell, has declared war on EOG, Perenco, Woodside, et al. Has declared war on NGC, has declared war on Touchstone, Heritage,” Young said, before he was interrupted by an Opposition member stating that AV Drilling should be added to the list.
“AV drilling is now producing over 1,200 barrels of oil a day from the same field they (the Opposition) said could not produce,” he said.
“If that is not a warning for us as the population that the most important sector in Trinidad and Tobago…they are now frontally attacking a body that represents it. And I ask myself: why?” he said.
Independent body
“And you know what it is. It is because they (the Energy Chamber) are an independent body; they certainly are no friends of the Government when they are ready, who is seeing what is happening in the energy sector and they are now saying what is happening in the energy sector independently is a good thing,” Young said.
According to its website, the Energy Chamber of Trinidad & Tobago is the representative association for the energy industry in Trinidad & Tobago, with member companies and organisations spanning the entire value chain from upstream producers of oil, gas and renewable electricity through to major downstream industrial consumers and petrochemical manufacturers and spanning the supply chain from small sub-contracting firms or individual professionals through to the major international operating companies.
“Our membership comprises privately-owned companies (owned by nationals and non-nationals), multinational energy companies, locally listed public companies, State-owned enterprises, not-for-profit organisations and educational institutions and individual professionals. We have just under 400 member companies and almost 70% of our members are small to medium-sized enterprises (under $25 million revenue per annum)”, it stated.
“Energy service companies and contractors make up the majority of our membership (66%), with other service companies and individuals accounting for 26% of membership and large operator companies in both the upstream and downstream sectors accounting for under 10% of members,” the website stated.