BHP ADVANCES

$3b  for development Ruby & Delaware project

Aus­tralian IOC BHP an­nounced the  de­ci­sion to ap­prove the $3 bil­lion Ru­by and Delaware project. The which will add 16,000 bar­rels of oil to crude pro­duc­tion, in­creasing to­tal pro­duc­tion by 27 per cent.

BHP con­tri­bu­tes $1.92 bil­lion. SOC Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um and Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny fund $1.08 bil­lion.

The project has es­ti­mat­ed re­cov­er­able 2C re­sources of 13.2 mil­lion bar­rels of oil and 274 bil­lion cu­bic feet of nat­ur­al.   First pro­duc­tion, ex­pect­ed in the 2021 cal­en­dar year, is es­ti­mat­ed to in­crease pro­duc­tion by 16,000 bar­rels of oil per day (bop/d) and 80 mil­lion stan­dard cu­bic feet per day (MM­scf/d) gross at its peak.

The Ru­by Project, lo­cat­ed in the Block 3(a) de­vel­op­ment area of the North East coast offshore To­co, con­sists of five pro­duc­tion wells tied back util­is­ing the la­tent ca­pac­i­ty of ex­ist­ing pro­cess­ing fa­cil­i­ties, proven tech­nol­o­gy of the ex­ist­ing op­er­at­ed as­set and new­ly ac­quired ocean bot­tom node seis­mic imag­ing.

Geral­dine Slat­tery, BHP Pres­i­dent Op­er­a­tions Pe­tro­le­um said: “This is an im­por­tant mile­stone for BHP in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Ru­by aligns well with our strat­e­gy of max­imis­ing val­ue from our ex­ist­ing as­sets, bring­ing com­pet­i­tive near term val­ue and vol­ume growth.”

BHP, as op­er­a­tor, holds a 68.46 per cent in­ter­est and Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um and the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NGC) hold the re­main­ing 20.13 per cent and 11.41 per cent in­ter­est, re­spec­tive­ly. The Block 3(a) Joint Op­er­at­ing Agree­ment re­quires at least two par­ties and 65 per cent of the work­ing in­ter­est to ap­prove the in­vest­ment.

In its 2018 sus­tain­ability re­port, CEO Dr Philip Mshel­bi­la : “The world in 20 years will like­ly be char­ac­terised by in­creased de­mand for more ef­fi­cient and clean­er en­er­gy. The chal­lenges of re­new­ables with re­spect to in­ter­mit­ten­cy, stor­age and high-in­ten­si­ty heat gen­er­a­tion mean that nat­ur­al gas (and LNG in par­tic­u­lar), as an abun­dant form of the clean­est fos­sil fu­el, will be a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of the fu­ture en­er­gy mix as a com­ple­ment to re­new­ables.” Cur­rent­ly, the LNG busi­ness is be­com­ing “more dy­nam­ic than ever over the last five years.”

Glob­al de­mand con­tin­ues to grow with glob­al sup­ply, with price fluc­tu­a­tions. Es­tab­lished for 20 years, the com­pa­ny will be poised to “win in the new en­er­gy world that is emerg­ing” in the next 20 years. At­lantic has al­so tak­en steps to em­ploy tech­nol­o­gy as a nec­es­sary fit in­to the com­pa­ny’s core busi­ness of liq­ue­fac­tion. Three en­ablers will ac­com­plish the lever­ag­ing of tech­nol­o­gy, which will al­so “fu­ture-proof the busi­ness for at least the next 20 years.” At­lantic has to en­sure that its peo­ple have the right ca­pa­bil­i­ty and be­hav­iours to de­liv­er suc­cess at present and in­to the fu­ture “de­spite the dy­namism and un­cer­tain­ties of the busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment.”

Tech­nol­o­gy must be utilised to de­liv­er clear busi­ness ob­jec­tives and the com­pa­ny must al­so take ad­van­tage of “dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion where ap­pro­pri­ate to en­hance safe­ty, ef­fi­cien­cy, pro­duc­tion and val­ue.”

At­lantic LNG is com­mit­ted to re­duc­ing its green­house gas (GHG) foot­print to be­come more en­er­gy-ef­fi­cient while con­tribut­ing to a clean­er en­er­gy fu­ture for the world. “These three things will help en­sure that our busi­ness is ro­bust against many of the chal­lenges of to­mor­row.”

“Just as through­out his­to­ry, the jour­ney of mankind was bro­ken up in­to dif­fer­ent Ages—the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, etc. To­day could well be de­scribed as the Tech­nol­o­gy Age.”

Rapid tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vances and in­no­va­tion close the gap be­tween what can be imag­ined and achieved.

Any com­pa­ny “that is not in the process of se­ri­ous­ly re­flect­ing on the im­pli­ca­tions of these re­al­i­ties and plan­ning to do some­thing about it has al­ready been left be­hind.”

HMD Builds 2 Methanol-Fueled Tankers

Laxman Pai August 22, 2019

Two new dual-fueled tankers capable of operation using clean-burning Methanol, Mari Couva and Mari Kokako were named at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD) by owners Marinvest and Waterfront Shipping.

The Methanol Institute has welcomed the launch of the 49,000dwt product tankers.

“The launch of the Mari Couva and Mari Kokako is a milestone for the acceptance of Methanol as a safe and reliable marine fuel that can meet IMO2020 regulations and create a pathway to lower carbon shipping,” said Greg Dolan, CEO, The Methanol Institute.

“The fact that the new ships feature more efficient engines capable of achieving IMO NOx Tier III compliance with no further modification demonstrates that this is a technology that is moving forward consistently,” he added.

A further two vessels will join the Waterfront fleet before the end of the year, owned by NYK and Mitsui/IINO Kaisha and chartered to Waterfront Shipping.

The new tonnage will join the seven existing dual-fuel tankers operated by Waterfront Shipping which have recently marked 50,000 hours of trouble-free operations on Methanol as fuel.

The use of Methanol as fuel requires very little additional investment into the ship since the fuel is a liquid and has handling properties similar to those for conventional distillate fuels. This makes it suitable for both newbuildings and retrofit projects, with minimal impact on cargo space and a simple training process for crew.

Interest in the use of Methanol as marine fuel has continued to grow in recent years, with numerous research projects completed or in progress to investigate the suitability of marine fuel across multiple vessel types.

“The investment in these vessels is a perfect example of companies looking to explore innovative ways to meet global emission requirements for the marine sector, something which continues in vessel demonstration programs in Europe, China and Singapore,” said Chris Chatterton, Chief Operating officer of the Methanol Institute. “We expect the implementation of the IMO2020 regulations to further increase interest in Methanol as a marine fuel that can deliver cost-effective compliance.”

Predator Oil & Gas update on CO2 EOR operations

Predator Oil & Gas has provided an operations update on its progress onshore Trinidad.

Fram Exploration Trinidad (‘FRAM’), the operator of the Inniss-Trinity field and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Columbus Energy Resources successfully completed workover operations to survey downhole the AT-5X well in preparation for future CO2 injection and enhanced oil production.

The preferred Predator downhole completion design to potentially achieve optimum efficiency for CO2 EOR injection by isolating specific reservoir sands was determined as being operationally viable. In preparation for CO2 EOR operations a key interval of reservoir section chosen for the first CO2 injectivity test was successfully isolated from the deeper reservoirs with the setting of a Cast Iron Bridge Plug. The workover rig moved on to survey the AT-4 well.

Paul Griffiths, Chief Executive of Predator,said:

‘We are pleased that the workover of AT-5X has been successfully completed and that the first stage of the operational strategy for focussed CO2 injection has been proven to be possible to implement in old producing wells. This strategy is unique in terms of what has previously been attempted using C02 in Trinidad and we are excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. We thank the Columbus Energy operating team for their significant efforts in achieving a challenging task that helps to de-risk the Pilot CO2 EOR Project.’

Predator is an oil and gas exploration company with the objective of participating with FRAM Exploration Trinidad in further developing the remaining oil reserves in the producing Inniss Trinity oil field onshore Trinidad, primarily through the application of C02 EOR technology. Potential for cash flow exists by executing a Pilot Enhanced Oil Recovery project using locally-sourced carbon dioxide for injection into the oil reservoirs (‘C02 EOR’). Near-term expansion and growth potential is focussed on upscaling the C02 EOR operations in the Inniss-Trinity oil field and potential acquisitions of assets suitable for C02 EOR development, subject to all necessary approvals.

Source: Predator Oil & Gas

Revolving Doors

The government announced major changes to the leadership of its new state companies, deciding it was time to appoint new leadership to direct the agencies. Transition leader Wilfred Espinet is departing after serving as chairman of all the companies created in the wake of Petrotrin’s dissolution.

Lawyer Michael Quamina is chairman of Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited while Newman George, the outgoing HDC chairman, chairs Guaracara Refining Company Limited and Paria Fuel Trading company.

Both lack experience in the energy sector and will assume these critical roles based on their prior roles and successes as leaders in other sectors.

Quamina will control these state companies while Heritage Petroleum is adjusting to functioning without a CEO after Mike Wiley, appointed last November, left for cancer treatment.

Espinet instituted an executive leadership team to manage the company during Wiley’s absence, believing it would take longer to find a new CEO than to wait an estimated six months for Wiley to return. The governmenty sent signals that it will seek a permanent replacement for Wiley.

Heritage Petroleum is charged with one of the key roles of the revamped energy sector, increasing oil production.

Espinet was blunt about his work during the restructuring process and prone, as an entrepreneur to keeping his cards close until he was ready to play them. There is no denying the thoroughness of his changes to the energy sector despite the lack of enthusiasm to implement changes long acknowledged as necessary to refocus the national plan for energy exploitation.

The spectre of cronyism and nepotism looms with appointments of politically aligned leaders of these public companies as the government contemplates elections.

Energy Minister Franklin Khan lamented the slow approach to hiring an anticipated 800 to 1,000 employees for Heritage. The Energy Ministry has a simple choice – whether a sustainable, long-term plan for the state energy sector is more important than short-term electoral success. The state cannot pursue both goals simultaneously.

Experts suggest the need for greater accountability from the new state companies, improved reporting on large state assets in Parliament and public stock exchange listings that would demand improved reporting standards.

A government that designed an energy sector for a profitable future must also plan for transparency in its operations and regular reporting to its ultimate stakeholders, the taxpaying citizens of this country. Divestment of state assets is the clearest priority, the safest antidote to release revenue, energise the private sector and employ the significant industrial community. As murders cross the psychological barrier of 400, the regime is on the brink, at pressure point within and without.

Former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine believes MICHAEL QUAMINA has his work cut out as chair of Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd and its subsidiary Heritage Petroleum Co Ltd replacing Wilfred Espinet, who oversaw the transition from Petrotrin.

Petrotrin closed last November. Heritage is charged with reviving the State’s downstream energy fortunes. Heritage is in a hole and he has to try and get out of it. There is a lot of work to do to get the production to increase. Part of the problem is that there has been no stability at Petrotrin and now its successors since 2015.

“This is the third chairman of Petrotrin/TPHL since 2017 and there have been numerous iterations of boards and management. The situation with Mike Wylie is unfortunate and I wish him well with his health issues. The fact is, though, production at Petrotrin/Heritage has seen significant decline in the past three years. Reversing this will require money. Where is that money coming from? The company has a lot of debt to service.” The most recent accounts show total liabilities at $32 billion and current liabilities at $23 billion. The company has also just recently managed to restructure its debt, avoiding an $850 million bullet bond payment that would have been due this month. “Heritage has to service that (restructured) debt, invest in new drilling projects, upgrade infrastructure and pay taxes all at the same time. This is a tall task for a company that has declining production, soft oil prices and which has lost a lot of the institutional capacity that was at Petrotrin.”

CONFUSION WITH OUR HERITAGE

Amidst spec­u­la­tion in the pub­lic do­main as to whether Wi­ley was ac­tu­al­ly on the job whilst he earned some quar­ter of a mil­lion dol­lars per month, came news that he was ill and re­cov­er­ing at his Texas Home. A memo from the Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings Lim­it­ed Chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet, ap­par­ent­ly the first clear state­ment in the pub­lic do­main, gave a rea­son for his ab­sence. Wi­ley was un­der­go­ing post-can­cer treat­ment an­tic­i­pat­ed to last six months and that his pro­ject­ed re­cov­ery pe­ri­od was short­er than the time it would take to ter­mi­nate him (Wi­ley) and re­cruit a new CEO. Chair­man Es­pinet ap­par­ent­ly told em­ploy­ees that Wi­ley, as CEO will work from home in Texas.

Most of us will like to work from home but, pub­lic pres­sure mo­ti­vated the Her­itage Board to say that the ‘work-from-home’ arrange­ment was not sat­is­fac­to­ry. A com­mit­tee was to be es­tab­lished to over­see the day-to-day op­er­a­tions.

Chair­man Es­pinet is quot­ed as hav­ing said that “We want the or­gan­i­sa­tion to be com­pet­i­tive and so, the Board has put a team in place to work along with Mr Wylie to dri­ve the op­er­a­tions of the com­pa­ny.” Then, lo and be­hold, a mas­sive re­vamp­ing of the Her­itage struc­ture came like a thief in the night. Gov­ern­ment ended the con­tract with the Her­itage CEO and Es­pinet was replaced by at­tor­ney Michael Quam­i­na.

The en­tire sit­u­a­tion, start­ing with the clo­sure of Petrotrin’s re­fin­ery reeks of un­to­ward moves by the Gov­ern­ment. The clo­sure has nev­er been prop­er­ly and/or ad­e­quate­ly jus­ti­fied by the Gov­ern­ment. Es­pinet has been per­ceived to be the ‘hatch­et man.’ With the au­thor­i­ty of the Gov­ern­ment, he dropped the axe on thou­sands of jobs and vir­tu­al­ly de­stroyed thou­sands of fam­i­lies. While most Petrotrin work­ers have been left un­em­ployed or un­em­ploy­able, the fa­mil­iar flag­ship flames at the Pointe-a-Pierre Re­fin­ery have gone for good as of No­vem­ber last year.

Many ques­tions in the pub­lic do­main, more so by politi­cians but valid con­cerns nonethe­less, arose over whether there was a cov­er-up of an­oth­er fi­as­co. The in­evitable ques­tion is that, hav­ing jus­ti­fied the ‘work-at-home’ arrange­ment and an over­see­ing com­mit­tee be­ing ap­point­ed, how do you then jump straight in­to fir­ing ‘en­er­gy ex­perts’ Es­pinet and Wi­ley and ap­point­ing non-en­er­gy ex­perts in the per­son­al­i­ties of Michael Quam­i­na and New­man George, e out­go­ing Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man.

For­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Kevin Ram­nar­ine be­lieves part of the prob­lem is l;ack of sta­bil­i­ty at Petrotrin. The Op­po­si­tion be­lieves that ter­mi­na­tion of Wil­fred Es­pinet as chair­man of Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um and all its at­ten­dant Boards was long over­due but the new ap­pointees, with their lack of ex­pe­ri­ence, still leave much to be con­sid­ered. For the decades that Petrotrin op­er­at­ed, not on­ly thou­sands were em­ployed, but mi­ni en­tre­pre­neur­ships de­vel­oped with busi­ness­es boom­ing and thou­sands more em­ployed. To­day, Gas­par­il­lo is fast de­gen­er­at­ing in­to a ghost town. The rip­ple ef­fect of Petrotrin’s clo­sure will al­so af­fect com­mu­ni­ties be­yond Gas­par­il­lo. En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklyn Khan can­not with his usu­al smile tell us that the trans­for­ma­tion process has been suc­cess­ful. All in­di­ca­tors point to fail­ure.

Oil­field Work­ers Trade Union

Espinet’s expulsion provoked reactions to his re­place­ments on Petrotrin suc­ces­sor com­pa­ny boards M. Quam­i­na was at­tor­ney for Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley and other cabinet members. N. George is Row­ley’s “friend” and his as­sis­tant cam­paign man­ag­er for the 2015 polls. Es­pinet’s du­ties as “front­man” for Petrotrin re­struc­tur­ing end­ed af­ter Au­gust 28, 2018, when he con­firmed Petrotrin work­ers would be re­trenched.

His busi­ness savvy and strength hastened demise of an en­trenched seg­ment of the na­tion­al econ­o­my. He sev­er­ed the main­stay of al­most 10,000 work­ers at the largest pub­lic en­er­gy com­pa­ny—a cen­tu­ry-old cash cow to which gen­er­a­tions had ties and whose fu­ture was a ma­jor po­lit­i­cal is­sue. He was muz­zled by Petrotrin lawyers af­ter crit­i­cis­ing the In­dus­tri­al Court.

Liv­ing abroad, he knew the regional impact of the clo­sure af­fect­ed cit­i­zens, giv­en his man­date for a prof­itable en­ti­ty. Gov­ern­ment had to clar­i­fy is­sues and con­tra­dict­ions. OW­TU warned it will take away the jobs of the PNM Gov­ern­ment While Im­bert and Khan praised the s re­struc­tur­ing, their state­ments sig­nalled Her­itage had challenges with pro­duc­tion and staffing.

Im­bert ar­gu­ed against re­ten­tion of CEO Mike Wylie while he con­tin­ued can­cer treat­ment in the US for the next six months—a po­si­tion Es­pinet de­fend­ed. Khan and Im­bert seemed at odds on a re­place­ment for Wylie, who ar­rived on Au­gust 2018 and worked up to June be­fore go­ing over­seas—ten months in­to his three-year con­tract. With US$450,000 an­nu­al salary plus hous­ing, trans­porta­tion and health perks, con­sid­er­a­tion of his ex­it pack­age may in­clude whether he was in­ca­pable of ful­fill­ing the con­tract. His fam­i­ly who re­lo­cat­ed from Texas last year re­turned with him.

Wylie em­pathised with Petrotrin work­ers, having par­ents who los­t oil in­dus­try jobs. “My in­ter­est was to come here and do some­thing mean­ing­ful to­wards the end of my ca­reer. This isn’t a three-year as­sign­ment, this is a job—this is my last job…”

The drama re­veals the chal­lenges of op­er­at­ing state en­ter­pris­es as busi­ness­es, along­side po­lit­i­cal con­cerns and the se­lec­tion of boards which can han­dle both. Apart from Norway, NOCs are regarded as incompetent, a view confirmed by the local record in sugar, aviation and utilities. Divestment is the only exit from this scandalous debacle allowing the local companies to take new opportnities in Guyana.

So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night, sweet oil baron…

Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to re­move Mike Wylie as Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um could cost the com­pa­ny as much as $3 mil­lion. Wylie was fired af­ter a pro­tract­ed sick leave kept him away from the job for over two months. He is cur­rent­ly re­cov­er­ing from ma­jor surgery and has been ad­vised by his doc­tors not to trav­el un­til his treat­ment is com­plete.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so re­moved the three Board mem­bers and replaced the com­pa­ny’s chair­man with his pri­vate at­tor­ney. Wi­ley was re­tained by Her­itage af­ter a lengthy search by in­ter­na­tion­al re­cruit­ment com­pa­ny, Egon Zehn­der In­ter­na­tion­al, be­tween June 28, 2018 and Au­gust 21, 2018. The firm was paid $4,554,813.97 to re­cruit him. Wylie was re­tained in Au­gust 2018 but was ab­sent from the coun­try on ex­tend­ed sick leave for the past two months.

His prog­no­sis looks good and he has been work­ing from his home in Texas while Board mem­ber Nigel Camp­bell has been act­ing CEO. Es­pinet al­so clashed with the Gov­ern­ment over a di­rec­tive to re­move Price­wa­ter­house­ C­oop­ers as the com­pa­ny’s au­di­tors.   PwC “pro­vid­ed out­sourc­ing fi­nan­cial ac­count­ing ser­vices for the com­pa­nies and re­cruit­ment ser­vices as well.” Es­pinet said he hoped that Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert has made the right de­ci­sion as the share­hold­ers rep­re­sen­ta­tive.

“I have no is­sues if the share­hold­ers rep­re­sen­ta­tive has judged he had a bet­ter way. I con­sid­er it to be an im­per­a­tive that he made the de­ci­sion if he con­sid­ered it to be a more pro­duc­tive ap­proach. He is com­pelled to do what’s in the best in­ter­est of the com­pa­ny and the coun­try. I am not up­set about how things were han­dled. If what was done will pro­duce en­hanced re­sults then I will be the first to con­grat­u­late.“

He heard the “opin­ion ex­pressed” that Quam­i­na may not have the ex­pe­ri­ence nec­es­sary to run an en­er­gy com­pa­ny. There would be no fi­nan­cial prof­it for him and there were no rules gov­ern­ing a pay­out as he was fired. “I nev­er took any pay or fees or any­thing. We did this be­cause we thought it will ben­e­fit all, all, all.“

The new struc­ture of Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um al­so in­cludes Ar­lene Gorin-George who served as press sec­re­tary to Prime Min­is­ter from 2015 un­til two months ago when she was re­tained and is now the head of In­ter­nal Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Her­itage.

Be­fore the re­struc­tur­ing of Petrotrin, Es­pinet over­saw the hir­ing of Chyau Lin of PRC, who signed a con­tract but be­fore he worked one day, he was paid $1.7 mil­lion be­cause his post had be­come re­dun­dant.

Barbados Border

THE Prime Minister participated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding between TT and Barbados for co-operation in energy development which extends across the maritime border of both countries.

Energy Minister Franklin Khan announced Rowley’s visit to Barbados.

BHP Billiton made some gas discoveries in the northeastern part of TT’s maritime acreage in several successful wells. Some of these wells are close to the TT-Barbados maritime border. Khan said because of this, both governments decided it was appropriate to develop an MOU concerning energy development across the TT-Barbados maritime border. If gas reserves are found on the Barbadian side of the border this could lead to the signing of a unitisation treaty in the near future.

Khan, Minister Dennis Moses and Minister Allyson West were part of the delegation for the MOU signing. Finance Minister Colm Imbert acted as prime minister. Rowley first spoke about the TT-Barbados MOU at a term-sheet signing ceremony between Shell and the National Gas Company in June.

The Indian Iron Barons are back

MACCARI Steel Holdings Ltd remains optimistic that it will succeed in its bid to restart, rehabilitate and operate the former Arcelor Mittal plant in Point Lisas.

The plant was closed in March 2016, beginning liquidation proceedings to pay off its reported $1.3 billion debt. Most of this debt was owed to its parent, the ArcelorMittal group, based in Luxembourg.

Persad said the plant was first sold to NuCor last year for US$20 million. NuCor was not using the plant in its entirety and eventually withdrew. He thanked the Government for not granting a commercial licence to NuCor because it was not going to use the entire plant.

The Government indicated it could not intervene in a private matter.

After NuCor withdrew, Maccari submitted a US$27 million bid for the plant. In May, Maccari came in second to Aeternus Steel Holdings Ltd, a joint venture between local company Integrus Group and Dubai investors Cassia Group, with a bid of US$41 million for the plant. Aeternus also withdrew because it was not using the entire facility.

Liquidator Christopher Kelshall approached Maccari to find out if it was still interested in the steel plant. Maccari demonstrated its continued interest with a US$180 million offer to restart, rehabilitate and operate the plant.

In a letter sent to Kelshall on June 18. “The ball is now in the liquidator’s court,” Persad said. He claimed the liquidator refused this offer and “has decided to end the bidding process altogether for one that he has not yet explained.”

Maccari, a consortium of local and international investors, including former steelworkers, will meet business chambers to discuss plans. Bringing the plant back into operation would be a major boost for the economy. Maccari started a campaign on social media to highlight progress at the plant.

The Steel Workers Union confirmed Persad’s statements. It was aware that Maccari had assembled “an exceptional group of engineers and technicians with considerable experience in the steel industry” in its bid to restart the plant. The resumption of the plant’s operations will benefit Couva, California and the surrounding communities. It advised Government to pay attention to the liquidation process and Couva and Point Lisas Chambers of Commerce to bring the parties together to resolve this matter.

Manufacture of practical metals first began in India. Iron technology in India may have begun in 1800 BCE. Archaeological sites show iron implements between 1800 BCE-1200 BCE. By the early 13th century BCE, iron smelting was practised on a larger scale Some iron objects are dated to 1400 BCE by radiocarbon dating.

 

Shell Gas agreement

Min­is­ter Franklin Khan an­nounced that the gov­ern­ment has fi­nalised ne­go­ti­a­tions with Shell Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed on gas-re­lat­ed is­sues.

In April 2018, a team led by Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley held high-lev­el dis­cus­sions with the ex­ec­u­tive man­age­ment of Shell in Lon­don . The dis­cus­sions led to the ap­point­ment of em­pow­ered ne­go­ti­at­ing teams to re­solve gas-re­lat­ed is­sues.

The teams had their first meet­ing in Au­gust 2018 and fol­low­ing ne­go­ti­a­tions, a heads of Agree­ment was ex­e­cut­ed on May 29, 2019 at Shell Head Of­fice in the Hague, Nether­lands.

Un­der the terms of the Heads of Agree­ment, the agree­ment be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and Shell comes in­to ef­fect on the fi­nal­i­sa­tion and ex­e­cu­tion of the de­fin­i­tive agree­ments on the var­i­ous gas re­lat­ed is­sues.

The de­fin­i­tive agree­ments among the Gov­ern­ment, Shell, the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go Lim­it­ed and the Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed were fi­nalised and ex­e­cut­ed in a sign­ing cer­e­mo­ny at the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, Tow­er C, In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain.

The out­come of ne­go­ti­a­tions re­sult­ed in im­proved eco­nom­ic and fi­nan­cial ben­e­fits to the coun­try and is a vin­di­ca­tion of the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion, ar­tic­u­lat­ed in the ‘Spot­light on En­er­gy’, to pur­sue im­proved re­turns from the ex­ploita­tion of the coun­try’s hy­dro­car­bon re­sources.

It ce­ment­ed the pos­i­tive re­la­tion­ship be­tween Gov­ern­ment and Shell, which will re­dound to the ben­e­fit of both par­ties and by ex­ten­sion to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The Gov­ern­ment-em­pow­ered ne­go­ti­at­ing team was led by Min­is­ters Khan and Stu­art Young and in­clud­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Poten and Part­ners UK Ltd, US At­tor­neys White and Case LLP and tech­ni­cal ad­vis­ers.

 

Guyana overtakes T&T in offshore drilling

Kevin Ramnarine. past Energy Minister, staes that drilling activity increased so much in Guyana that there is more offshore drilling than in Trinidad and Tobago. Ramnarine was addressing decline in performance of the economy of the 7-island archipelago where drilling activity had fallen 57 percent in the last four years, representing a major slowdown.

“Rigs are leaving instead of coming to T&T.” A rig which has worked in the country for eight years is now departing to drill in Guyana. For the first six months of this year, there were 489 offshore rig days here. “I did a calculation of what was happening in Guyana at the same time, 556. So there is more drilling activity taking place offshore now in Guyana than in T&T.” The centre of gravity of the Caribbean energy sector is now beginning to shift away from T&T.

Ramnarine described the Guyana-Suriname basin as “The New North Sea”, after one of the biggest petroleum developments in the world. Oil companies operating in Guyana are in action mode, after consecutive discoveries by ExxonMobil, and one by Tullow proved Guyana had world class reserves. Since the first discovery in 2015, the Government has been putting mechanisms in place to facilitate the developing sector.

Guyana is now only months away from production.   As one door closes in OPEC, another opens in CARICOM. C’est la vie!

Independence message: Opposition Leader

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar … Dr Mar­tin Luther King said, “We all came in on dif­fer­ent ships, but we’re all in the same boat now”. This state­ment rings so true af­ter 57 years of in­de­pen­dence.

“We are Trinida­di­ans and To­bag­o­ni­ans; we can­not be and should not try to be any­one else. While we must nev­er for­get our an­ces­tral lin­eages, cus­toms and cul­tures, we must strive to build a so­ci­ety that is dis­tinct to our unique cir­cum­stances.

In the years lead­ing up to this day in 1962, we as­pired, as a na­tion, to­wards the free­dom to chart our own course. We as­pired to throw off the chains of colo­nial servi­tude and op­pres­sion and build a de­mo­c­ra­t­ic so­ci­ety to ben­e­fit all peo­ple.

There­fore, it is the great­est irony that on the oc­ca­sion of our 57th In­de­pen­dence An­niver­sary that our own Gov­ern­ment is .. us­ing the ar­cha­ic charge of sedi­tion to tor­ment a po­lit­i­cal op­po­nent. Clear­ly, mas­sa day is not done! To­day, on the 57th an­niver­sary of our in­de­pen­dence, it is crit­i­cal that we ask our­selves: what have we al­lowed our so­ci­ety to be­come?

Have we thrown off the shack­les of colo­nial tyran­ny and now al­lowed our­selves to again find our coun­try un­der sim­i­lar gov­er­nance? Are our news ed­i­tors, jour­nal­ists, union­ists, re­li­gious lead­ers, civ­il so­ci­ety lead­ers, con­cerned cit­i­zens, po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tors and non-gov­ern­ment politi­cians now be­ing tac­it­ly in­tim­i­dat­ed by the re­cent res­ur­rec­tion of the sedi­tion laws?

Wat­son Duke was charged with sedi­tion in re­la­tion to com­ments.. in which he urged work­ers of TSTT, TTEC and WASA to be “pre­pared to die. “This is your be­lief folks, this is your fam­i­ly and I am send­ing the mes­sage clear, let .. them know that the day they come for us in WASA, we are pre­pared to die and the morgue would be pick­ing up peo­ple.”

Fitzger­ald Hinds at a PNM meet­ing said: “ …the UNC is bad­ly wound­ed. We need to fin­ish them out. Kill them dead. I want you to un­der­stand that on No­vem­ber 28, you have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to dri­ve a PNM bal­isi­er deep in­to the hearts of the wicked UNC vam­pires. Take a stake with a bal­isi­er on top and dri­ve it deep with­in their heart and fin­ish them off once and for all.”

One speak­er says be pre­pared to die for his union mem­bers while the oth­er in­vokes his sup­port­ers to kill them dead. Which is worse? Yet there was no in­ves­ti­ga­tion, no charge, no protest from the gov­ern­ment for one while the oth­er is be­ing pros­e­cut­ed and per­se­cut­ed. What ex­act­ly is the spe­cif­ic cri­te­ria that is be­ing used to de­ter­mine what is free speech and what is sedi­tious af­ter 57 years of in­de­pen­dence?

What are the cri­te­ria to de­ter­mine who is charged and who is not?          I do my du­ty as Op­po­si­tion leader and ask these  ques­tions so as to pro­tect all pa­tri­ot­ic cit­i­zens from run­ning afoul of this ar­cha­ic law and an ever-in­creas­ing op­pres­sive Gov­ern­ment.

To­day, the stan­dard of liv­ing of our cit­i­zens con­tin­ues to de­crease at an alarm­ing rate. To­day the dreams of many of cit­i­zens are be­ing shat­tered and their true po­ten­tial ig­nored by this Gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to eq­ui­tably ad­dress the needs of the pop­u­la­tion.  Many of the poli­cies, acts and even in­ac­tion in some cir­cum­stances by this Gov­ern­ment have led to this na­tion’s im­age be­ing tar­nished and the way of life we once knew is con­stant­ly be­ing erod­ed.

I call on the gov­ern­ment to re­mem­ber their con­sti­tu­tion­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ties and sus­pend the modus operan­di of the last four years which has seen them op­er­ate as a gov­ern­ment for “the few and not the many”. I call on the gov­ern­ment to be in­spired by the ac­com­plish­ments, dy­namism as well as the world-class tal­ents of our peo­ple and do all in their pow­er to en­sure that each cit­i­zen is em­pow­ered to be part of na­tion-build­ing.

To­day how can we tru­ly cel­e­brate in­de­pen­dence when we see some of the same re­pres­sive be­hav­iours … be­ing reem­ployed to­day. Let us re­mem­ber those that came be­fore us and who helped to pave the path we now walk up­on. We pay trib­ute to those lead­ers and seek to build on what they have laid for us.

As we mark this day which all cit­i­zens should hold dear to them, giv­en its his­toric as well as life-defin­ing sig­nif­i­cance, it is al­so a day for na­tion­al self-in­tro­spec­tion as every cit­i­zen is called to crit­i­cal­ly as­sess the role they have, and the role they should be play­ing in our na­tion’s de­vel­op­ment. It is our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to now help pave the way for the next gen­er­a­tion.

I have faith in the cit­i­zens of our na­tion, in their strength, their in­no­v­a­tive spir­it, and their courage. I call on all cit­i­zens to re­ject those who seek to pro­mote di­vi­sive­ness, op­pres­sion and tyran­ny in our so­ci­ety. We are the cre­ators of our own fu­tures. We the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go are the mas­ters of our des­tiny. I wish all cit­i­zens a very hap­py and re­flec­tive In­de­pen­dence Day.

Independence message: PM

I be­lieve, with sin­cere hon­esty, that we should be cel­e­brat­ing the 57th an­niver­sary of our In­de­pen­dence to­day, look­ing deeply in­to our in­di­vid­ual con­sciences to con­sid­er the highs and lows in our re­cent, na­tion­al ex­pe­ri­ence. The com­ple­tion of Car­ifes­ta 2019 was one such high. We saw thou­sands of our cit­i­zens blend­ing to­geth­er with oth­er Caribbean peo­ples in a fes­ti­val to cel­e­brate the great spir­it, which con­tin­ues to evolve in­to a dis­tinc­tive Caribbean cul­ture.  We demon­strat­ed, that in spite of the his­to­ry of how we all ar­rived here, and our lan­guage and eth­nic dif­fer­ences, there is a unique rich­ness of spir­it which re­sides, with­in all Caribbean peo­ple.

That “Caribbeaness” was fur­ther demon­strat­ed, last week­end when this coun­try and Bar­ba­dos signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Un­der­stand­ing from which joint ini­tia­tives will be de­vel­oped for the ex­ploita­tion of hy­dro-car­bon re­sources across our mar­itime bound­aries. This ge­o­graph­i­cal area, ap­pears to hold gas-re­serve po­ten­tial, which could be ex­ploit­ed to sup­ply our Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate, at the same time, grant­i­ng Bar­ba­dos a guar­an­teed mar­ket for sup­plies de­vel­oped in its ex­clu­sive eco­nom­ic zone.

Your gov­ern­ment al­so pro­pos­es to dis­cuss fur­ther co­op­er­a­tion with the Bar­ba­dos gov­ern­ment—ini­tia­tives in the ar­eas of in­vest­ment, trans­porta­tion, fish­ing and the shar­ing of diplo­mat­ic mis­sions across Africa and Asia. The po­ten­tial of a new, co­op­er­a­tive Caribbean frame­work is in­deed laud­able. I sum­marised it last week­end as be­ing “All good for Bar­ba­dos, and All good for Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

There is al­so the high of this coun­try’s suc­cess­es at the.. Pan Amer­i­can Games in which our ath­letes came home with 12 medals, in­clud­ing two gold, and a praise-wor­thy stand­ing among all per­form­ing coun­tries.

.. There were lows on the na­tion­al land­scape, how­ev­er. One of which was the spread­ing of a dis­ap­point­ing­ly neg­a­tive sto­ry line that this coun­try was in a state of cri­sis. Some per­sons – rather “doom­sters” look at our dai­ly lives, nev­er cit­ing our great in­ter­na­tion­al achieve­ments, the beau­ties of life in Trinidad and To­ba­go or the dai­ly strug­gles against our in­evitable na­tion­al chal­lenges. In­stead, they choose to pur­vey on­ly sto­ries of un­nec­es­sary bit­ter­ness, man­u­fac­tured so­cial con­flict, racial ten­sion, even glee­ful­ly pre­dict­ing our col­lec­tive fail­ure.

They pro­nounced, wrong­ly, that your gov­ern­ment would nev­er take se­ri­ous ac­tion against white-col­lar crime, nor pro­gres­sive­ly pur­sue the spate of vi­o­lent crimes—but ob­serve that your gov­ern­ment’s stand of pro­ceed­ing with a se­ries of leg­isla­tive crime-fight­ing mea­sures, and that it demon­strates a de­ter­mined will to bring or­der where there is a chaot­ic re­al­i­ty—fix­ing the bro­ken parts.

Ad­mit­ted­ly, the in­her­ent fault lines run­ning through our body politic are man­i­fest­ed every day in the anger and vi­o­lence among in­di­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties. It brings no com­fort to re­mind that crime is now a uni­ver­sal dis­ease, be­ing spread by the cul­ture of drugs, guns and gangs. This dis­ease was iden­ti­fied years ago, and at­tempts were made to iso­late Trinidad and To­ba­go, as much as pos­si­ble, but sad­ly, in re­cent times, our bor­ders were left vul­ner­a­ble, the re­sults of that cul­ture are what we see re­port­ed every day.

I wish to re­peat that the gov­ern­ment, which I lead, con­tin­ues to em­brace the great Vi­sion out­lined by this coun­try’s Found­ing Fa­ther, Dr Er­ic Eu­stace Williams, at our in­de­pen­dence, in 1962. We strive to­wards fix­ing and main­tain­ing our in­sti­tu­tions, the ed­u­ca­tion of our peo­ple, the de­coloni­sa­tion of their minds, and im­prove­ments in the qual­i­ty of life, over­all. For the vul­ner­a­ble among us, we fight to main­tain the pro­vi­sions of over 100 grants and ser­vices, avail­able through gov­ern­ment min­istries and agen­cies – many of these be­ing far more sup­port­ive than those in de­vel­oped so­ci­eties.

The more for­tu­nate, it should be eas­i­ly recog­nised, con­tin­ue to ben­e­fit — even in this pe­ri­od of de­clin­ing gov­ern­ment rev­enues — from free health care, ed­u­ca­tion, var­i­ous State sub­si­dies and fa­cil­i­ta­tions. The watch words, with­in Dr Williams’s Vi­sion of Dis­ci­pline, Pro­duc­tion and Tol­er­ance are still so rel­e­vant and alive to­day, hav­ing the same sig­nif­i­cance of fifty-sev­en years ago, and are, no doubt, need­ed now, prob­a­bly, more than ever. In­de­pen­dence, un­less “it is a sham and an im­pos­ture”, Dr Williams wrote, means a clean slate, and the throw­ing off of the bur­dens of the past but we can­not side­step the bur­dens of the present and hope to suc­ceed.

The 21st cen­tu­ry, as it un­folds, is de­mand­ing strate­gic knowl­edge from both a peo­ple and a na­tion. This then is not the time for cit­i­zens to play the blame-game or to dis­hon­est­ly throw stones at each oth­er. In oth­er parts of the world, pro­gres­sive cit­i­zens, rather than pelt stones, are us­ing stones to build paths to a New So­ci­ety. Let’s all work to con­vert­ing the lows of par­ti­san po­lit­i­cal ri­val­ries, just as they con­front us, in­to the highs of har­mo­ny, mu­tu­al re­spect and a per­ma­nent space for moral val­ues. Let’s seek to bring out the best in our­selves, al­ways.

Re­cent­ly, I made some com­ments on the Pub­lic Ser­vice, which were ea­ger­ly mis­in­ter­pret­ed, un­for­tu­nate­ly.   How­ev­er, I hope that this could be the be­gin­ning a na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion on the Pub­lic Ser­vice, and that we could work col­lec­tive­ly to­wards de­mand­ing a busi­ness-ori­en­tat­ed or­gan­i­sa­tion, one that de­liv­ers cus­tomer-sen­si­tive ser­vice, adopts a cul­ture of strate­gic plan­ning, de­liv­ers prompt re­sults and cost ef­fec­tive projects.

Such an or­gan­i­sa­tion has to be the spinal cord of the New So­ci­ety – our re-fo­cus­ing on high­er moral val­ues, and moral­i­ty in pub­lic and pri­vate of­fice; achiev­ing a safer coun­try, through au­thor­i­ties solv­ing and cit­i­zens con­scious­ly pre­vent­ing crime; the fi­nan­cial com­fort of all, and cit­i­zens ex­pe­ri­enc­ing a pro­gres­sive­ly-im­prov­ing qual­i­ty of life; and a cre­ative and in­no­v­a­tive so­ci­ety. As cit­i­zens, we must al­ways be mind­ed that 21st cen­tu­ry trends de­mand that we fix those un­pro­duc­tive as­pects in our lives, and that we all in­no­vate, cre­ate and seek to dis­cov­er. Trends in this Cen­tu­ry are de­mand­ing an evo­lu­tion­ary shift from the cul­ture of de­pen­den­cy and en­ti­tle­ment to a new role for the cit­i­zen, that of in­di­vid­ual re­spon­si­bil­i­ty i.e. peo­ple tak­ing charge of their lives, rather than wait­ing on oth­ers or the state for re­lief. We must ac­knowl­edge and de­mand that there are im­por­tant roles for the state in all our lives but we will on­ly get the best of our­selves and our so­ci­ety when we al­so ac­knowl­edge the very im­por­tant role of in­di­vid­ual re­spon­si­bil­i­ty.

As we con­scious­ly re­view the list of highs and lows, we should al­so be ask­ing our­selves how can we re-cre­ate, change, solve, and in­vent. We must be aware that the Cen­tu­ry is now de­mand­ing that cit­i­zens cre­ate their own New So­ci­ety, in which they both own the change they want, and the fu­ture they think is pos­si­ble. Let us hold hands and step con­fi­dent­ly for­ward with “bound­less faith” in a des­tiny which we can shape.

Hap­py In­de­pen­dence Day, Fel­low Cit­i­zens.    The Sedi­tion Act, un­used in the past, is now emerg­ing a vi­tal in­stru­ment of the po­lice. What is not clear is whether the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice is act­ing on its vo­li­tion or is re­spond­ing to a pub­lic com­plaint. Sat Ma­haraj made state­ments which were con­sid­ered “sedi­tious” and led to a search at the ra­dio sta­tion where those com­ments were made. Court ac­tion was re­quired to” force” the TTPS to pro­duce a search war­rant which ought to have been pre­sent­ed as a mat­ter of rou­tine.

No charge has been made in that mat­ter to date. Yes­ter­day, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty dis­closed at the post-Cab­i­net press con­fer­ence that at least one charge of sedi­tion would be laid against trade union leader and politi­cian Wat­son Duke. A sedi­tious in­ten­tion is de­fined in sec­tion 3 (1) claus­es a to e of the act. Clause c is a catchall de­f­i­n­i­tion; “to raise dis­con­tent or dis­af­fec­tion amongst in­hab­i­tants of Trinidad and To­ba­go.” The crit­i­cal is­sue, there­fore, is to de­ter­mine a per­son’s in­tent. There are a num­ber of points to be con­sid­ered.

First, who is the com­plainant, or are the po­lice act­ing in their own right? The po­lice ser­vice has its hands full deal­ing with the crime surge, the spi­ralling mur­der rate in par­tic­u­lar. There is al­ready a se­vere back­log of cas­es in the courts, where post­pone­ments are the norm due to the non-ap­pear­ance of po­lice of­fi­cers. Is it that the po­lice are now pa­trolling the air­waves as part of an ex­er­cise in “to­tal polic­ing” or fol­low­ing a pol­i­cy of “no bro­ken win­dows?” If that is the case, sure­ly there are more im­por­tant ar­eas re­quir­ing at­ten­tion.

Sec­ond, was the of­fence com­mit­ted in a pub­lic broad­cast­ing space? If yes, then this is the province of the Telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions Au­thor­i­ty (TATT), which has wide pow­ers, not the least of which would be the pow­er to sus­pend a broad­cast­er’s op­er­a­tions. Giv­en its broad pow­ers, TATT would hard­ly need a search war­rant.

Third, is it ap­pro­pri­ate for the an­nounce­ment to be made by the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty? The Min­is­ter could give no de­tails of MP Mar­lene Mc­Don­ald’s ar­rest or charges which were even­tu­al­ly re­leased by the po­lice. The Po­lice Ser­vice is meant to be sep­a­rate from the Ex­ec­u­tive branch, lest it be tempt­ed to ex­ceed its pow­er and thus threat­en the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights of cit­i­zens.

Union lead­ers and politi­cians are of­ten giv­en to rhetoric on pub­lic plat­forms, which would not be con­sid­ered ac­cept­able in ra­tio­nal and con­sid­ered dis­course, es­pe­cial­ly at elec­tion time. Pro­fes­sor Rose-Marie Belle An­toine, Law Dean at UWI St Au­gus­tine, has cau­tioned that “sedi­tion can be used as a po­lit­i­cal tool since it is not amongst our es­tab­lished norms,” George Or­well warned that “threats to free­dom of speech, writ­ing and ac­tion, though of­ten triv­ial in iso­la­tion, are cu­mu­la­tive in their ef­fect and, un­less checked, lead to a gen­er­al dis­re­spect for the rights of the cit­i­zen.” Is this a new po­lice ini­tia­tive?

Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce Industrial Court

The In­dus­tri­al Court de­ci­sion to dis­con­tin­ue its in­quiry in­to al­le­ga­tions of con­tempt of court raised by the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) against the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (TTCIC) has raised more ques­tions than it has pro­vid­ed an­swers. A me­dia re­lease from the Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce said while the Cham­ber is re­lieved that “good sense has pre­vailed” in this mat­ter, a num­ber of “burn­ing is­sues” re­main un­re­solved.

In 2016, Gabriel Faria, CEO, Cham­ber of Com­merce and two oth­er men were is­sued with sum­mons to ap­pear be­fore the Court on a charge of con­tempt of court, over state­ments made from the floor by busi­ness­man Frank Mout­tet. At a Cham­ber event, Mout­tet said the In­dus­tri­al Court was to be blamed for de­creased lev­els of pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in the coun­try, which was mak­ing it in­creas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult for em­ploy­ers to ter­mi­nate work­ers. Mout­tet was said to have hint­ed that the court was harsh and op­pres­sive to­wards em­ploy­ers while favour­ing work­ers and their rep­re­sen­ta­tive unions.

JTUM is­sued a full-page ad in the Trinidad Guardian and re­fer­ring to Mout­tet’s com­ments said: “It shows not on­ly a com­plete mis­un­der­stand­ing of the Court, but al­so a gross dis­re­spect for such an im­por­tant in­sti­tu­tion, which was cre­at­ed by statute to me­di­ate and pro­vide some lev­el of sta­bil­i­ty to the in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions cli­mate in our coun­try.”

In its me­dia re­lease the T&T Cham­ber said: “ It was in re­sponse to these per­cep­tions that the Cham­ber held a break­fast meet­ing in No­vem­ber 2016 on ‘The Im­pact of In­dus­tri­al Court Judge­ments On Your Busi­ness.’ A sit­ting In­dus­tri­al Court judge was the fea­tured speak­er and the pan­el dis­cus­sion that fol­lowed in­clud­ed the said judge, a se­nior mem­ber of the Fac­ul­ty of Law (UWI), an in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions con­sul­tant and an in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions at­tor­ney.

“Dur­ing the dis­cus­sion pe­ri­od, var­i­ous par­ties crit­i­cised the Court’s mode of op­er­a­tion, cit­ing ex­am­ples of out­comes that they felt to be whol­ly un­fair. The pre­vail­ing opin­ion was that the in­dus­tri­al re­la­tions en­vi­ron­ment was a con­straint to pro­duc­tiv­i­ty be­cause of em­ploy­ers’ in­abil­i­ty to get fair judge­ments at the Court.”

The me­dia re­lease said fol­low­ing news re­ports on the dis­cus­sion JTUM is­sued a paid ad­ver­tise­ment which al­leged con­tempt of the Court on the part of the Cham­ber and par­tic­i­pat­ing speak­ers.

The Court sub­se­quent­ly “com­mand­ed” the Cham­ber, Gabriel Faria, Frank Mout­tet, and Derek Ali to ap­pear be­fore it in con­nec­tion with an in­quiry in­to a pos­si­ble con­tempt of court and pro­vide as ev­i­dence every con­ceiv­able form of record­ed ma­te­r­i­al re­lat­ed to the break­fast meet­ing.

“In the months that fol­lowed, the Cham­ber and the three gen­tle­men in­curred hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars in le­gal fees prepar­ing for a Court’s in­quiry. JTUM re­quest­ed and were al­lowed to be a par­ty to the in­quiry. Two years and eight months lat­er they have failed to pro­vide a sin­gle state­ment or any ev­i­dence in sup­port of their claim.”

The Court’s Au­gust 7th or­der to dis­con­tin­ue the in­quiry has, ac­cord­ing to the Court, re­sult­ed from JTUM’s fail­ure to re­spond and this out­come has left the Cham­ber “even more dis­sat­is­fied with the Court than it was be­fore.”

“The In­dus­tri­al Court sum­moned the TTCIC (and two pri­vate cit­i­zens) to an in­quiry that stemmed from a state­ment by JTUM al­leg­ing con­tempt of court by in­di­vid­u­als who ques­tioned The Court’s rul­ings in a pub­lic fo­rum. Should the Court have the right to be judge and ju­ry in a mat­ter re­lat­ed to its own im­par­tial­i­ty? Do cit­i­zens of T&T, have a right to voice opin­ions on the op­er­a­tions of the in­sti­tu­tions of the coun­try? The Court’s de­ci­sion to dis­con­tin­ue its in­quiry has left this con­cern un­re­solved. Where, for ex­am­ple, is the line drawn be­tween free­dom of ex­pres­sion and con­tempt? Isn’t free speech a ba­sic tenet of a func­tion­ing democ­ra­cy?” the Cham­ber asked.