TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Energy Minister Stuart Young has dismissed claims made in a Reuters article published on Tuesday that it is incapable of meeting demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) outputs and was unable to capitalise on the new markets especially in Europe as those countries seek to wean themselves off Russian supply.

“Trinidad and Tobago, Latin America’s largest LNG producer with enough reserves and capacity to meet a portion of the incremental demand, has been unable to reverse an export fall expected to continue for a third-consecutive year in 2022 as it struggles to bring more gas output online,” the article claimed.

The Reuters article went on to assert that in Peru, LNG shipments are ramping up fast with special emphasis on Europe, where a combination of firm demand and high prices has been luring exporters this year. That is despite Peru’s political turmoil and threats to nationalise the gas industry, which roiled the sector last year.

“Peru is getting ahead of its neighbour in that race. Perupetro reported a total of 37 LNG cargoes shipped from the Pisco port from November through May, with almost half of them delivered in Europe,” the article noted.

So far this year, Peru has shipped 26 cargoes carrying some 1.8 million tonnes of LNG (4.09 million cubic meters), a 74 per cent increase versus the same period in 2021, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. Fifteen cargoes went to Spain and the United Kingdom. The remaining ones headed to Asia, which last year was the preferred market for Peruvian LNG, the Eikon data showed.

Financial services firm Ebury said in a note this month that Peruvian LNG exports to the UK, for example, soared to over one billion pounds ($1.26 billion) between November 2021 and March 2022. That was up from just 80 million pounds over a three-year period prior to that.

Trinidad’s gas output has dwindled in the last decade, according to BP Statistical Review of World Energy, amid obstacles to developing its expensive offshore reserves. In consequence, the country’s flagship Atlantic LNG project has been unable to fully operate its four liquefaction trains, according to the Reuters article.

But Taylor who was scathing in his response while speaking at an energy conference in Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday.

“Another Reuters article, attempting rather mischievously and without the correct information to compare LNG production in Peru, off a one-train facility, with what we are doing here in TT utilising three of our four trains,” he began before adding, “I will use this opportunity just to put on record that there is a lot of fallacy in that. It is not based on a proper fact comparison. Our LNG exports, even with a reduced natural gas output, [are] double, more than double with what is taking place out of Peru,” Young said.

He said at the right time statistics will be provided to show that production levels out of Atlantic LNG increased and were projected to increase this year when compared to 2021.

“The lesson is, this is our TT, and don’t always believe what you hear the naysayers say as they attack us here in TT.”

“I can assure you the Government is working overtime, through me leading the ministry, to ensure sustainability of not only LNG but of our petchem sector, and we do think outside the box.

“Hopefully, in the not-too-distant future we will be able to say more on that,” Young said.

However, while Young was dismissal of the article, Oppostion United National Congress Member of Parliament David Lee said the article vindicated the Opposition’s statements that Young has misled the country on the state of the energy sector.

“The report, which highlights this nation’s persistent crash in gas production, shows that the Opposition was right to call out Young for being delusional…that this country was ramping up production of LNG and natural gas,” said in a release.

“Even the Prime Minister has told the Energy Conference that ‘Gas supply between 2024 to 2027 will be tight.’ Therefore, it is clear that Minister Young misled the country on the true state of our oil and gas sector.”

Lee accused his Government of plunging TT’s energy sector into ruin and misleading the population into thinking there was hope, but the Reuters article was proof that the energy sector was crippled and stifled of any revenue to be gained from the prevailing windfall prices.

In 2021, the partners of the 15 million-metric-tonne facility in Point Fortin – BP, Shell, Repsol, Suez LNG and state-controlled NGC Trinidad – shut the first train, followed by a decision to restructure ownership of the remaining three.

While the Government and private gas producers in Trinidad decide how to ramp up output, exports are poised to fall this year from 7.9 million tonnes shipped in 2021, a lost opportunity amid buoyant LNG demand and high prices in Asia and Europe.

In 2014, Trinidad exported over 14 million tonnes of LNG, according to Eikon data.