Energy minister wants more focus on CNG for vehicles

Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan has asked the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP) to develop a new national compressed natural gas (CNG) network.

Speaking with the media in La Romaine Wednesday she noted that government's gas subsidy has reached $2 billion. She said the plan is to reduce the subsidy through greater use of CNG.

The minister noted that the former People’s National Movement (PNM) administration had set up Trinidad CNG Ltd to help develop a CNG network project.

“It was just the same thing they did with the multi-product pipeline and those projects could be economic, in my view, and the State companies could have taken them and invested their own capital in it,” Seepersad-Bachan said.

“I have asked the National Petroleum Company to go back to the drawing board and tell me (why) they cannot configure a national CNG network that can make money and (one) that they will be able to profit from. We need more CNG stations,” she said.

However, Seepersad-Bachan admitted that there are other factors to consider, including incentives for vehicle owners and to ensure that "we have the infrastructure...to provide the CNG kits and all the support services that go with it,” she said.