ONGOING negotiations about the the operations of Atlantic's Train One are not negatively impacting upon the economic fortunes of Phoenix Park Gas Processors Ltd (PPGPL) or the Trinidad and Tobago NGL Ltd (TTNGL). PPGPL president Dominic Rampersad and TTNGL chairman Conrad Enill gave these assurances at a virtual news conference after TTNGL'S virtual annual general meeting on Thursday.

Train One has been down since last November. Negotiations are ongoing between Government and Train One's shareholders ( Shell – 46 per cent, BP – 34 per cent, National Gas Company-NGC- ten per cent and the Chinese Investment Corporation – ten per cent) regarding its resumption.

Rampersad said, "The Train One agreement provides for us to receive a product from Train One and sell it and return the sale proceeds back to Atlantic minus a processing fee."

He said, "What is essentially happening is, even though there are no volumes that are coming to PPGPL, we are still entitled to what is called the minimum payment from Atlantic."He said PPGPL should continue to receive this minimum payment of approximately US$3.5 million this year, as it did last year and in 2022 " which is when the contract comes to an end."

Rampersad said,"The majority of our earnings comes from the processing of the gas that NGC brings to Pt Lisas." He added,"Notwithstanding that, the Atlantic business does bring some important volumes to us for marketing and it does provide an earnings base that we certainly need. As we always say, every cent counts."

Rampersad said PPGPL's contracts with Atlantic's Trains Two, Three and Four remain in place until 2024, 2025. "There are no get-out clauses in those contracts. So those contracts will run until 2024, 2025." He added,"We continue to receive liquid from them, they continue to pay their fees on time."

Shell and BP have 57.5 and 42.5 per cent ownership respectively in Trains Two and Three. Train Four's shareholders are Shell, BP and NGC with respective ownership of 51.11 , 37.78 and 11.11 per cent.

Enill, who is also NGC chairman, said future arrangements for Train One are ongoing. "Those discussions have not yet concluded but I think that they are very much advanced, in terms of the current realities."

He said, "I think what the Government is looking at is the amount of gas that we would have in the future, the capacities that we have and the abilities to manage those, with a view to try to get a little bit more revenue than we would have had in the past."

Rampersad said PPGPL managed to survive the worst of the covid19 pandemic and is looking to grow its business. "Our markets out of Trinidad and Tobago are the Caribbean and Latin America." He said, "Our businesses in North America tend to focus more on the southern United States as well as the Mexican market."

Regarding other potential markets for PPGPL, Rampersad said,"it will be primarily driven by our expansion of our North American businesses." He said the company will seek to increase its exports into Mexico "as that is an increasing market with