Business View Caribbean - March 2016 39
BVC: What are some of the most important items on
the Chamber’s agenda?
“There are a few areas of huge importance to us in
this industry. One of them is safety and another is envi-
ronmental protection. There’s a huge amount of work
which we do to try to ensure that we operate safely,
that we don’t injure people as we’re doing our work.
So, we’ve done a lot of work on improving the safe-
ty management systems of contractors and service
companies and improving the skills and knowledge
of workers within the industry, and certifying them.
That’s an area in which the Chamber has been in the
forefront of. The Chamber has also been in the fore-
front of trying to foster industry collaboration between
the companies in order to find more efficient ways of
solving problems in this very moment of a low-price
environment.”
It would be disingenuous to suggest that the oil and
gas sector in Trinidad is having its best year. In fact,
Prime Minister Rowley has announced a number of
economic “belt-tightening measures” because oil
and gas revenues have been falling precipitously.
Can you address that?
“Trinidad and Tobago is very dependent on the hydro-
carbon sector. So the fall in oil and gas and petrochem-
ical prices over the past 18 months has very serious
implications for our economy. It significantly reduces
our export earnings; the amount of foreign currency
which flows into the economy has been very seriously
reduced which also reduces government revenue. So
that has a big effect on the rest of the economy. It puts
pressure on our balance of payments, because we im-
port most of the things we consume. We do have a
manufacturing sector which exports to the region, but
it’s dwarfed in its size by the energy sector. So, the low-
price environment is very challenging for us, as it is for
all oil and gas economies.”
According to current predictions, there isn’t going
to be an immediate change in the situation for some
years. How is the Chamber going to respond to the
flattening of prices into the foreseeable future?
“I think that the industry goes through these cycles; it’s
AT A GLANCE
WHO:
Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago
WHAT:
Representative organization for the Trini-
dad and Tobago energy and related sectors
WHERE:
Pt. Lisas, Trinidad and Tobago
WEBSITE
:
