Aug 2016 Financial News

Brooks: Bolder, focused NGC emerging

Aug 08, 2016

The National Gas Company (NGC) of the future will not be defined by project overruns and cost escalation, says chairman Gerry Brooks.

Instead, the state-owned company will be characterised by prudent investment, strategic expansion and new revenue in the value chain.

Speaking at the NGC Group’s Spirit Awards held at the Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain, o Brooks said in a deliberate move to return NGC to the profit margins enjoyed before the global energy slump, the company is moving to secure and strengthen its present business by renegotiating several upstream and downstream contracts.

Having established several multi-disciplinary teams to achieve this, specialists will engage in detailed preparation, as well as ontractual recalibration aimed at characterising the company’s new approach, Brooks said.

“A new, more agile, bolder and more focused NGC is emerging. This is necessary in our new energy architecture. The shale oil revolution in provinces such as Canada, USA, China, Argentine and Colombia has posed a genuine threat but also provides investment potential and opportunity.

A specific team is examining this as we look carefully and strategically at investment opportunities. Every major international company has grown organically and by acquisition. NGC will employ both approaches in its thrust to diversify.”

He added; “Our team has made three visits to Ghana to explore possibilities for international expansion. A reciprocal visit is expected this August. A memorandum of understanding has been executed with Ghana’s National Petroleum Corporation. Negotiations are underway with Bulk Oil Supplies and Transport.

“Two specific opportunities—the Takoradi to Tema pipeline and the gas processing plant—are at the feed stage and being analysed. The technical and economic analysis is being carefully evaluated to ensure right project fit, timely execution and appropriate economics.”

Addressing the monetising cross border gas with Venezuela, Brooks said his team and Energy Ministry officials are working in unison to achieve this and cross border acreages from fields such as Dragon are being exlored by local experts working with Venezuelan energy representatives.

Brooks said given T&T’s economic challenges and the seismic changes in the energy industry, the national approach and thinking has to be radically different to enable NGC to build on the present and capture the future. He said four decades before NGC was born, the Point Lisas model was just a dream now the company stands at the epicentre of the Point Lisas model, contributing richly to its success.

The model, according to Brooks, is the envy of the global energy sector and the aspiration of emerging energy jurisdictions.

“It created unprecedented wealth and value for T&T, transforming our country’s GDP from less than US$3,000 per capita to US$20,000 per capita. At NGC, this responsibility is even greater, as we are at the core of our country’s hydrocarbon development.

“Whether it is our vision to expand the Point Lisas North and South Industrial Estates; to go downstream in aluminium processing; establishing a marketing and trading desk across the group; exploring alternative energy to realise government’s objective to have 20 per cent of energy provided by alternative sources, such as National Energy’s Solaria Project or expanding operations across the hemisphere, opportunity beckons,” he said.

“The Gas Master Plan highlights profound changes in our industry. We must proactively shape a new, better and more compelling future. Collaboration and co-operation across our group are critical imperatives to optimise individual and group performance. It is this ethos and spirit that must be fostered within the NGC Group in order to capitalise on a challenging. Let us turn industry challenge into opportunity.”

Source:
Sean Nero
Trinidad Guardian
Saturday August 6, 2016

http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2016-08-06/brooks-bolder-focused-ngc-emerging