MANNING
PORT-OF -SPAIN (Trinidad Guardian):
UNDER THE agreement reached last month, Trinidad and Tobago is to supply approximately 158 million cubic feet a day of natural gas to Jamaica.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning at a joint news conference with visiting Jamaican leader Portia Simpson Miller said they agreed that a long-term supply of natural gas will be available to Jamaica from Trinidad and Tobago starting around 2009.
Options available for the supply of natural gas to Jamaica include compressed natural gas utilising a new technology that is now demonstrating the potential for an economic arrangement between the two countries, the Trinidadian leader said.
The other option was for a debottlenecking of LNG Train IV, which should give additional quantities of gas, he explained.
The third option was for the proposed Train X (the next Train), which "will give us enough gas to be able to commit to a long-term supply to Jamaica from Trinidad and Tobago," he said.
He said Trinidad offered most favoured nation status in its CARICOM trading relations and this agreement would be on those terms. Manning stressed: "The price arrangements will call for some will, and one of the things that would be important here would be collaboration between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica to ensure that third parties do not benefit at the expense of us both."
