Curtis Williams
OGJ Correspondent
PORT OF SPAIN, June 3 -- Trinidad and Tobago reported it will no longer entertain proposals for the construction of individual ammonia or methanol plants in the twin-island Caribbean nation.
The country's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning, said that methanol and ammonia plants are not adding sufficient value to the country's economy and that the government would only grant proposals that would ensure the country receives the greatest return for its natural gas.
"If a company wishes to manufacture methanol or manufacture ammonia alone, they are told we are not interested," Manning stated. "If however [the proposal is] associated with methanol and ammonia manufacture. . .then we can sit and talk, and in fact that shift in policy has brought about a significant number of proposals, some of which have been considered recently by the cabinet."
Trinidad and Tobago is the largest exporter of both methanol and ammonia in the world and several companies have been seeking to relocate to the Caribbean island nation. But Manning said with the country getting far better returns for its gas by converting it to LNG, it was reluctant to accommodate further ammonia and methanol expansions.
Manning noted that there have been several proposals for downstream manufacturing plants. One proposal has been approved recently that calls for the construction of a plant in the Union Estate in La Brea. "There is a second one with exactly the same configuration, which also is targeting La Brea, and there is a third one which goes from ammonia to melamine, which is targeting the industrial estate in Pt Lisas," Manning said.
All three plants have been given priority by the cabinet and are now being actively pursued by the Export Task Force of Natural Gas. The Prime Minister said there also are two proposals for the construction of "a big reformer that coverts natural gas into syngas." The syngas then could either be used for producing methanol or ammonia.
