Business View Caribbean | February 2021

37 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN FEBRUARY 2021 PHOENI X PARK GAS PROCESSORS L IMI TED their core mandate of “delivering competitively priced, high-quality products and services in a manner that preserves the environment.” Phoenix Park is the de facto gas processing facility in Trinidad and Tobago, and this has proven to be strategically useful over the years. “We are the main NGL processor in the country,” says Dominic Rampersad, the company’s president. “In export markets, there’s a lot of competition from products coming from Argentina, the United States, and other markets, but locally we are the only processor.” This monopoly exists for a reason. As Rampersad explains. “Over the years, we have established Phoenix Park as an NGL hub in the country, which has created significant marketing advantages.” Because of the small size of the island state, this consolidation has helped ensure a steady market for the state entity while avoiding pricing wars, which are always an inevitability when multiple players compete for the same limited market. “For example,” he says, “the natural gas liquids produced by liquid gas facilities in Trinidad come to Phoenix Park for fractionation and export. So, rather than those companies trying to market it on their own, they pool their product at our facility resulting in economies of scale and cost advantages.” This approach has helped the island nation to compete as one marketer in the international markets it serves. Phoenix Park was founded in 1989 as a joint venture between Trinidad and Tobago’s government through the National Gas Company (NGC), Conoco (now ConocoPhillips), and a local / foreign contractor, Pan West Engineers & Constructors LLC. At formation, the NGC owned 51%, Conoco 39%, and Pan West 10%, a shareholding that would evolve. Rampersad reports. “In 2013, Conoco sold their stake in Phoenix Park to the NGC, who in turn listed