NGC to operate Block 1a with DeNovo

PORT OF SPAIN, May 5, 2017 – Petrotrin is in talks to transfer its 20% stake in Block 1a to the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago (NGC).

Negotiations surrounding the sale are reported to be in the advanced stages, although all parties involved have remained tight-lipped regarding the sum of money related to the sale.

DeNovo Energy operates as the other stakeholder in Block 1a as well as Block 1b. The company is owned by Proman, a German firm that also owns Methanol Holdings (MHTL).

DeNovo’s Block 1a along with Block 1b asset was meant to provide a solution to ongoing gas curtailments in Trinidad and Tobago, serving as a supplier of 2.27 mcm (80 mcf) natural gas per day to the company’s downstream counterpart MHTL. As a result of shortages, MHTL closed two of its plants in March 2017.

However, the government of Trinidad and Tobago has maintained that natural gas resources belong to the country’s citizens and that NGC would continue to serve as an aggregator and distributor of natural gas in the country. In keeping with this policy, the government has suggested that Proman use NGC’s infrastructure to transport gas from the asset to the Point Lisas estate instead of building its own pipeline.

NGC’s involvement in the Block 1a asset is an interesting development given the tenuous relationship between NGC and Proman, DeNovo’s parent company.

“We have a very professional relationship with all of the companies on the estate. We will work in the interest of the asset because, at the end of the day, the interests of the shareholders come first,” NGC chairman Gerry Books said.

“They will have the full benefit of our pipeline technology capability. They will have the full benefit of our engineering capability. They will have the full benefit of our experience. We have continued to have a very good, professional, constructive relationship.”

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