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guardian wrote:
Anthony Wilson
Published:
Sunday, March 5, 2017
About a year after Caribbean Ispat closed its iron and steel facility on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd confirmed yesterday that it is mothballing two of its five methanol plants on the estate and offering voluntary separation packages to dozens of workers.
A spokesman for MHTL said “Negotiations over the last five years with NGC to supply sufficient gas to operate all our plants have to date been unsuccessful.
“Even after exhaustive negotiations and exploring possible supply alternatives, unfortunately, we now have no option but to close two of our plants.
“MHTL deeply regrets the negative impact this will have on its work force.”
The announcement was made at a meeting on Friday afternoon between workers and the operator of the methanol complex, Industrial Plant Services Ltd (IPSL).
One of the workers who attended the meeting told the Sunday Guardian that about 100 employees are going to be separated, but the spokesman said he could not confirm that number.
The company’s five methanol plants situated on the Point Lisas Industrial Estate in Trinidad have a combined annual production capacity of 4.1 million tonnes.
MHTL was once majority owned by CL Financial, the massive local conglomerate that collapsed in January 2009 under the chairmanship of former billionaire, 83-year-old Lawrence Duprey.
CL Financial and its insurance subsidiary, Clico, were forced to sell their 56 per cent stake in the petrochemical complex to MHTL’s minority shareholders for US$1.175 billion in 2014, following the outcome of a bitter international arbitration battle in London.
The arbitration battle has left Proman, a Switzerland-headquartered company, as the majority shareholder of the complex.
MHTL, like many other petrochemical plants at Point Lisas, has been impacted by natural gas shortages (called gas curtailment) over the last five years.
The shortages have been caused by declining gas production at T&T’s offshore gas fields, which are dominated by global multinationals Shell, BP and BHP Billiton.
MHTL brings together production in Trinidad with a global supply chain that includes storage facilities in key global locations and a vessel fleet of 12 chemical tankers.
MHTL diversified its operations in 2010 with the start-up of its AUM operations on the estate, producing annually 647,500 tonnes of Ammonia for use as feedstock for its downstream operations which comprise a UAN plant producing 1,483,500 tonnes of UAN (42 per cent) solution and two ]Melamine plants with a combined capacity of 60,000 tonnes of melamine.
tr1ad wrote:sad sad times
guardian wrote:
Gail Alexander
Rosemarie Sant
Published:
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Government is working on “other developments” regarding workers of the Methanol Holdings Trinidad Ltd (MHTL) if it comes to a point when the company cannot carry workers, as it appears, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday. He said hopefully that “development” will bear fruit.
He made the comment in Parliament as he answered questions relating to an exclusive Sunday Guardian story about the closure of two MHTL methanol plants over the weekend, saying Government was trying to prevent losses at Pt Lisas.
Rowley said he did not have a figure for the number of workers affected since the company hasn’t reported the situation to Government. But he said the matter had been facing T&T for since late last year and Government had tried to get the company to avoid it, “but it appears it cannot be carried any more.”
He said the reason for the closure of the two out of MHTL’s five plants was a shortage of gas. He said two had to be shut down so that the other three could continue.
Rowley said in 2009 the state was aware of gas shortage issues, but nothing was done even up to 2014. He said the Juniper platform is aiming to provide gas in 2018, but T&T was still “behind the eight ball.” Government, he said, was trying to provide gas from in T&T or outside.”
Commenting on the issue yesterday, former energy minister Conrad Enill said the closure of plants was “a worrying development, and signals that if companies cannot get gas there will be more of this to come in the future.”
Another former energy minister, Kevin Ramnarine, said he fears “there will be a contagion effect, with other companies in Point Lisas entertaining similar thoughts.”
He is of the view that “Government must intervene in negotiations between MHTL and the National Gas Company to keep the plants going and save jobs.”
The National Gas Company, in a statement yesterday, said MHTL had contracts that had expired, but notwithstanding this NGC “continues to supply MHTL with as much gas as is available from upstreamers given the prevailing gas supply environment.”
A spokesman for MHTL told the Sunday Guardian: “Negotiations over the last five years with NGC to supply sufficient gas to operate all our plants have to date been unsuccessful. Even after exhaustive negotiations and exploring possible supply alternatives, unfortunately, we now have no option but to close two of our plants.”
Yesterday, NGC told the T&T Guardian that in the current environment of gas curtailments, contractual priority must be accorded to downstream companies with existing contracts. It said: “Failure to honour these contracts will expose NGC to onerous consequences, including claims and penalties for breach of contract.” NGC said it would “continue to act fairly, reasonably and in good faith towards MHTL, and to negotiate terms that are beneficial to MHTL, NGC and the people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Enill said: “The National Gas Company needs to tell the country what is the situation with the supply of natural gas. We knew there would have been challenges but we did not think it would be long term.”
He said Government needs to decide by policy how to address the issue, adding the unfortunate thing is that there has been unease’ in the sector because there is no information on a policy plan.
Both Enill and Ramnarine have raised questions about what has become of the Gas Master plan. Enill said the plan will outline “how much gas is available and how it will be used. The plan needs to be rolled out so that the energy sector has some direction.”
Ramnarine said “the plan was completed in 2015 and on assuming office the People’s National Movement decided they wanted to review it. It is now eighteen months!”
Efforts to contact acting Energy Minister Colm Imbert were unsuccessful yesterday.
But the Ministry of Energy’s website indicated that the plan is before the Cabinet for review. It said Government initiatives to support the industry will be revealed in the new Natural Gas Master Plan.
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