BHOENDRADATT Tewarie, former minister of planning and minister of industry, enterprise and tourism believes no substantial policies have been crafted to allow this country to experience economic growth outside the energy industry.
Speaking at a virtual forum to discuss Trinidad and Tobago’s medium-term economic outlook on May 24, Dr Tewarie, who served under the National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) and People's Partnership governments, gave a damning assessment of the current government’s efforts to diversify the economy.
“Without fossil fuel gains, the medium term is not viable,” said Tewarie.
“And what does that say for the long term?”
The absence of strong economic policies, he said, will continue to hinder this country’s growth, especially as energy’s role as an “anchor of financial stability” is under threat.
Tewarie shared an example, noting TT’s “fairly robust” information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure, saying the local industry, which sees an average of 400 annual tertiary graduates in the field, is heading in the right direction.
However, since the advent of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in 2021, he found the country has taken “no steps to play a successful role in the global value chain.”
He praised the government for advancing energy deals but criticised its perceived lack of transparency and willingness to invest in and promote the non-energy sector.
“How are we doing in energy? In the short term, we are doing bad,” said Tewarie.
“In the medium term, if all the ducks are lined up and there are no irreversible slips between the cup and the lip, one can be hopeful that TT can be in a good place.”
Finance Minister Colm Imbert said in the 2024 budget that about 2.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas is produced daily, from a capacity of about four billion cubic feet.
“(We are) cognisant that we are significantly below the highest production level of 4.2 billion cubic feet per day in natural gas utilised by our petrochemical plants and LNG facility at capacity levels in the past,” Imbert said. “We have therefore taken decisive action in support of our energy production capacity to increase our oil and gas production.”
Imbert added that gas production “will stabilise at approximately 2.6 billion cubic feet in 2024 and 2.5 billion cubic feet in 2025.”
[caption id="attachment_1086730" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Atlantic LNG, Point Fortin. - File photo by Jeff K Mayers[/caption]
For the long term, the minister added, “The coming onstream of Shell’s Manatee project is expected to assist in significantly reducing the natural gas deficit.
“Furthermore, significant progress on negotiations regarding Woodside’s Calypso deepwater development has been made, and we are eagerly looking forward to bringing this project to fruition.”
Tewarie said he feared the country is banking too heavily on the success of Woodside and other projects.
He said the agreement’s lack of publicly released technical details makes projections difficult.
“I think it s
