Petrotrin pumping jacks at its oilfields in Trinidad. Courtesy of Petrotrin.

By Jewel Fraser
PORT OF SPAIN, May 5 2014 (IPS)

Trinidad and Tobago holds the dubious distinction of being among the top 10 emitters of carbon dioxide per capita in the world, much of it due to the petrochemical industry that is the main driver of its economy.

According to the University of Trinidad and Tobago, the country’s petrochemical sector is responsible for 60 percent of those emissions."There are also positive social impacts through job creation and utilisation of services and materials from the local energy sector." -- Melissa Mohammed-Rajkumar

Melissa Mohammed-Rajkumar, a business analyst at the state-owned oil company, Petrotrin, told IPS that six percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are from its own operations.

But now Petrotrin is eager to reduce its carbon footprint.

It has succeeded in registering a Programme of Activities (PoA) project that would bundle together projects by several petrochemical companies in Trinidad and Tobago and require only one validation process for all of them – the first such project in Trinidad to be registered under the U.N.’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

It seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by recovering and utilising methane-rich natural gas currently vented in the fields.
This PoA project was registered with the CDM in August 2013.

According to the CDM Programme Design Document Form issued in 2012, “Venting and flaring of associated gases from oil wells is commonplace, in Trinidad and internationally. This PoA will improve the economics of collecting associated gases from both onshore and off-shore oil fields in Trinidad.”

Venting involves controlled release into the atmosphere of unburned gases that are a byproduct of oil production. The venting ensures that associated natural gas can be safely disposed of in an emergency.

Oil companies resort to venting when they cannot store or use gas commercially, to reduce the risk of fire and explosion.

Mohammed-Rajkumar, a member of Petrotrin’s CDM team, told IPS, “Sustainable development of the country will be enhanced by the project as valuable resources that would have been wasted through venting will contribute to economic development when captured and utilised for productive end-uses.

“There are also positive social impacts through job creation and utilisation of services and materials from the local energy sector,” she said.

Trinidad and Tobago’s PoA is one of the few CDM projects in the English-speaking Caribbean to achieve registration.

Though some countries have expressed an interest in launching CDM projects that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus make them viable players on the Carbon Emissions Reduction (CER) market, only four projects in the English-speaking Caribbean have achieved registration under the CDM – two in Jamaica, one in the Bahamas, and one in Guyana.

Of the 18 CDM-registered projects in the Caribbean, 12 are in the Dominican Republic and two are in Cuba.

There are two CDM-registered PoA projects in the Caribbean, the one in Trinidad and Tobago and one in Haiti.

Whereas the Wigton windfarm project in Jamaica has achieved a measure of success, the CDM project in Guyana has failed to achieve its targets under the CDM, according to Sharma Dwarka, the factory operations manager of Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc., otherwise known as GuySuCo.

Though the Caribbean is not a major source of GHG emissions, GuySuCo chose to get involved in the CDM because of its commitment to reduce its carbon emissions.

GuySuCo. chose to launch a bagasse cogeneration project under the CDM, Dwarka said, “because it fits directly into GuySuCo.’s operations. The processing of sugar cane to produce sugar produces bagasse [a fuel] which is utilised for power generation for the operations.

“The quantity of power produced from bagasse is more than adequate for the operations. As such, excess power is available for sale to the national grid.”

The hoped-for effect was the reduction of Guyana’s dependence on fossil fuels for energy and, hence, of its carbon emissions.

Unfortunately, Dwarka told IPS that there have been no financial gains to Guyana or GuySuCo. to date from registration with the CDM.

This was mainly “due to non-achievement of design parameters of the sugar plant. The main issues at the sugar plant include non-achievement of cane throughput (tonnes of cane processed per hour) and frequent stoppages due to breakdowns, no cane periods due to poor weather conditions, etc.”

However, he said, “GuySuCo. remains committed to reducing its carbon emissions. Having identified the root cause of problems at the sugar factory, corrective action is currently being taken such that the factory can achieve the original design parameters.

“Once this is achieved, the cogeneration plant will be positioned to generate carbon emission reductions (CERs) and tap into the carbon credit market.”

Mohammed-Rajkumar told IPS that Petrotrin’s PoA project is now in the implementation stage. “Tenders have been issued and we are awaiting responses,” she said. The project is approaching its study and design phase.

Regarding funding, she said, “Commercial arrangements are in the process of being drafted and their form will depend on the outcome of the engineering estimates.”

The initial CDM project, in its first year of operation, is expected to remove approximately 90,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e).

“For the next nine years, the project is expected to remove an average of 78,000 tCO2e per annum, but this estimate is subject to further engineering studies to be conducted.”

Mohammed-Rajkumar said that the initial phase will focus on its wells in the Fyzabad, Grand Ravine, Parrylands, Palo Seco and Barrackpore fields.

She said the company has no qualms regarding the project’s financial feasibility, even though prices on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme market, to which it has access, are very low. It “is also exploring options in other markets where prices range from five to 10 dollars.”

“We can hold and trade the carbon credits when prices are higher,” Mohammed-Rajkumar said. “In any event, Petrotrin remains committed to implementing the CDM project because of the net environmental and social benefits to be derived.”

Volunteers aid an oil-slicked seabird. Photo Courtesy of Papa Bois Conservation

By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN, Dec 23 2013 (IPS)

Whether it is a case of sabotage or simply poor management practices by the state-owned PETROTRIN, as the union claims, a mysterious oil spill in south Trinidad is wreaking havoc on homes and wildlife in the area.

PETROTRIN claims it has no idea as to the source of the spills, and Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine, who toured La Brea and other affected areas on Sunday, said “the mystery remains where this oil is coming from.”"Shut it down, if you don’t know where it is coming from." -- Gary Aboud

The Environmental Management Authority also said it had been unable to ascertain the source and that its immediate concern was the protection of life and the environment.

Gary Aboud, president of Fishermen and Friends of the Sea, told IPS that the only solution was to shut down all oil production in the area.

“As we speak, more and more oil is being pumped into the sea. Why doesn’t the minister order the shutdown of all oil being transported in the Gulf of Paria? Shut it down, if you don’t know where it is coming from,” he said. “We find it totally unbelievable.”

According to the head of the La Brea Fisherfolk Association, Alvin La Borde, “[Local] fishermen cannot go out to work. They need to buy things for their families for Christmas. They would not be able to leave until this oil is cleared.

“The fishermen have also lost nets and ropes used to secure their boats,” he told IPS.

In a statement, the EMA said it “will continue to closely monitor clean-up efforts and ensure that environmental best practices are carried out.

“Once the source of the spillage is determined, the EMA will be assessing the situation from a legal and compliance perspective to ascertain whether there is any breach in environmental legislation.”

Fitzgerald Jeffrey, the member of Parliament for the La Brea region, which is known for having the largest natural deposit of asphalt in the world, told IPS that he is hoping the evacuation is carried out “as quickly as possible”.

“There are young people and it is difficult for them to breathe…and as much as 24 families are directly affected. In addition, there are fishing vessels contaminated with oil. We are seeing crabs and dead fish along the beach.

“Yesterday I was down there and there is a very strong gas scent and people have been advised not to do any cooking in the area,” he added.

On Monday, the environmental group Papa Bois Conservation issued an urgent appeal for paper towels, dishwashing liquid and other supplies to aid birds that are covered in oil.

The Wildlife Orphanage and Rehabilitation Centre (WORC), which is also trying to rescue animals affected by the oil spill, reports “oil in the mangrove as well as a strong hydrocarbon smell”. The WORC also posted on its website a picture of an oil-slicked dead pelican at La Brea.

PETROTRIN, which has been in operation for 100 years, has acknowledged that there are installations across the country engaged in refinery activities and that some of its pipelines may still contain hydrocarbons that can be hazardous to health.

Ramnarine said the authorities were now seeking international assistance in dealing with the oil spill, even as the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) maintained that PETROTRIN should shoulder the blame for the environmental disaster.

“We do not concur with the company’s offering of the excuse that it is some kind of sabotage or otherwise,” OWTU president general Ancel Roget told a news conference on Sunday.

“We want to say there is a massive cover-up of the PETROTRIN management to shield their friends, the lease operators, who they invited to and in fact gave away some of the lucrative acreage of PETROTRIN assets, and therefore a cloud of silence and secrecy has shrouded the lease operators in the La Brea situation,” he said.

Roget has accused the company of knowingly reducing the level of security in the fields, allowing thieves to roam freely.

“The reduction and removal of morning tower shifts…these shifts provided as a monitoring effort and additional security effort so that if there are any oil spills throughout fields they were reported in real time.”

Roget said PETROTRIN had no emergency response contract to deal with the latest series of oil spills, saying “they violate their own investigation policy which states that investigations of that nature ought to take place within the first 24 hours.”

But Ramnarine said that unmanned platforms were part of the industry globally.

“We can’t put people on every single platform,” he said, adding “in the Gulf of Mexico, there are unmanned platforms.”

Over the weekend, PETROTRIN’s president Khalid Hassanali said one of the company’s lease operators, Trinity Oil and Gas, had discovered several valves open at its operations in Rancho Quemado, allowing oil to flow out of the tanks onto the lands.

“This is of concern because the other spills have been marine. It is extremely disturbing because…the valves were found opened which doesn’t normally happen. All these things happened together,” he said, saying that the company was now investigating whether the oil spills were acts of sabotage.

“To reach that conclusion one needs to go through a process of investigation. It’s early, we can’t reach that conclusion without being fair and without investigating fully,” he told a news conference.

The company issued a statement informing residents in nearby villages that oil had been sighted along the coastline near shore and on land and that they should avoid venturing in or near the sea.