May
20, 2004
Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela
move closer to cross-border gas agreement
(BNamericas.com) - "Venezuela and Trinidad
and Tobago's energy ministries have 'exchanged
technical documents' which could lead to the processing
at Trinidad's Atlantic LNG facility of gas produced
at Venezuela's offshore Deltana platform 'There
seems to be momentum building behind the discussions,'
Atlantic LNG president Richard Cape told BNamericas
on the sidelines of the Latin American energy
conference in La Jolla, California.
The ministries signed a memorandum of understanding
(MOU) in December and exchanged technical documents
in April during a meeting in Trinidad, Cape said.
Venezuelan gas would be converted to liquefied
natural gas (LNG) at the Atlantic LNG facility
for export to the US.
'The very idea that it has come this far suggests
that it's an idea that is believed to be feasible
and should be given some effort to see if it can
come to pass,' he said. Meanwhile, Atlantic LNG
has reached a settlement with construction workers
on its fourth train and workers on the cross-country
pipeline, 'and everyone's back to work,' Cape
said.
US construction company Bechtel International,
which was hired by Atlantic LNG to build train
4, reached an agreement with workers in April.
Workers on contract to Bechtel at the Point Fortin
site were on strike for 10 weeks demanding higher
wages. A separate labor dispute with workers on
the cross-country pipeline feeding gas to Atlantic
LNG trains was resolved in 'the last week or so,'
Cape said".
