By The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited
In recent years, the world has been navigating a period of incalculable complexity, with the convergence of several global crises and risks. It started with a pandemic that stagnated economies and reversed progress on many sustainable development targets. Soon after came the outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine which triggered a continental scramble for energy and exacerbated pandemic-era cost-of-living concerns.
Concurrently, a threat that has constantly been relegated began to take centre stage, as climate change mitigation and adaptation started topping government agendas across the world.
The result of this convergence is that countries are embattled on three major fronts all at once –environmental, energy security and human development. Moreover, these are not discrete threats, but each reinforces the other. For example, energy insecurity can slow progress on clean energy targets, and climate disasters can set development efforts back.
For this reason, as the world tries to solve these challenging problems, multi-purpose solutions are needed, which can help tackle more than one threat simultaneously.
For the Caribbean region, micro and small-scale LNG projects can be an effective answer to the above-mentioned challenges:
1. Firstly, they can support climate action. Even as the world transitions towards low-carbon energy, harnessing natural gas – the cleanest burning fossil fuel – is considered a low-hanging opportunity to reduce carbon output in the interim.
2, Secondly, there is a healthy market supply of LNG both within and outside the Americas. Strong supply and a short supply chain increase the availability of this energy source, and therefore strengthen energy security in consuming countries.
3. Thirdly, for several reasons – including fiscal disincentives to the use of carbon-heavy fuels – LNG can be a cheaper option than imported oil in the long term to satisfy regional energy demand.
Cheaper energy can liberate capital for development projects and reduce the cost of living.
In short, natural gas (as LNG) can help combat climate change, boost energy security and liberate capital for development.
NGC has been exploring the feasibility of micro and small-scale LNG projects in the Caribbean for some years, because the company believes there are real and valuable opportunities in that space.
Through different partnerships and agreements, the company is working assiduously to bring such projects to fruition, and potentially expand the use of LNG across the Caribbean.
This focus fits seamlessly within NGC’s Green Agenda and sustainability thrust. Micro and small-scale LNG solutions can enable the Caribbean region to meet its energy needs today in a more sustainable way than currently obtains.
As a future-minded energy company, NGC and the wider NGC Group are actively investing in such solutions – which also include renewable energy projects and energy efficiency initiatives – to help guide the region through the energy transition.