Western Hemispheric Energy Summit being planned for Trinidad and Tobago

<a href=ogj.pennnet.com>Oil & Gas Journal, By Curtis Williams OGJ Correspondent

PORT OF SPAIN, June 16 -- A jointly hosted Western Hemispheric Energy Summit, slated for Trinidad and Tobago this fall, will focus on natural gas, and participates will discuss supply-demand scenarios for the next decade, Energy Minister Eric Williams said.

The summit will hosted by the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and the US.

The US is keen to ensure that it can count on predictable supplies of gas in keeping with its strategic move away from over dependence on potentially unstable Middle East supplies, Williams said.

Trinidad and Tobago, already the largest LNG exporter to the US, is seen as an important future supplier to satisfy a rapidly growing US LNG market.

Members of the 15-member Caribbean regional economic union (Caricom) are going to be invited along with OLADE (Latin American Energy Organization.). Venezuela belongs to OLADE.

Venezuela has been trying to get into the LNG business and has been working closely with Trinidad and Tobago.

"We can be the catalyst that brings all these groups together to come up with a hemispheric position on short- and long-term energy issues," Williams said. Various issues being studied by the Caribbean Hydrocarbons Cooperation Commission also might be discussed.

Topics could include LNG regasification plants in the Caribbean basin and a cost-cap on petroleum products sold to Caricom countries by Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

"If we are going to look at long-term energy supplies into the US, which we all agree is our major market, and we are looking at the supply position from the perspective of the gas-producing countries, it makes sense for the suppliers and demanders to get together and talk," Williams said.