The Trinidad and Tobago government Friday denied reports that the Atlantic Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Train One is to be shut down in January next year.
“Madam Speaker Atlantic Train One will not be shutting down in January 2021. Train One will continue to operate in 2021 and will be part of wider negotiations which have been taking place among the Atlantic LNG shareholders to form one unitised facility encompassing all four trains,” Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Franklin Khan told the Parliament.
Khan, was responding to a question posed by the Leader of the Opposition Business in the Parliament, Dr David Lee, who said he wanted clarification on media reports regarding the shutdown of the facility.
The Trinidad Guardian newspaper reported earlier this week that there is a desperate attempt by the government and the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC) to save Atlantic LNG Train One from being shut down in January.
“It appears at this stage, Train 1 would have to be mothballed, and taken out of service, with the possibility of a loss of jobs and significant earnings for the government,” the newspaper reported, quoting “reliable sources familiar with the matter” as indicating that “that this situation has occurred because bpTT (bp Trinidad and Tobago) has said that it does not have gas for Train 1.
The Trinidad Guardian newspaper said that it also understood that bpTT has informed the government that it will be able to meet its contractual arrangements for Train 2, 3 and 4.
Khan told legislators that the NGC, acting on behalf of the government is taking the requisite action to man the operability of Train one pending the finalisation of the negotiations of the structure for the unitised facility.
He told Parliament that on Thursday night “the shareholders of Atlantic Train One approved the turn around, formerly known as TAR in January for the Train.
“This will keep the Train in an operations ready mode for all of 2021 into 2022,” Khan said, noting that he was not at liberty to divulge more on the situation because of the nature of the negotiations.
Train One currently is owned by Shell (46 per cent), BP (34 per cent), Chinese Investment Corporation (10 per cent), and the. NGC (10 per cent).
