By: Capil Bissoon
June 23, 2023
*NiQuan… a blighted PNM Project which Keith Rowley hails as a “triumph” continues to haunt the PNM!*
That World Gas-to-Liquids project is another of the many PNM scandals and failed projects which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars! And it is coming back to haunt the PNM!
It started under the Patrick Manning-led PNM Cabinet of which current Prime Minister Keith Rowley was a senior member.
The failed GTL project was the brainchild of the Malcolm Jones-led Board appointed by the Manning-led PNM Administration and which to date has cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
The project collapsed and Jones was accused of a breach of fiduciary duty and alleged mismanagement for the construction of the GTL plant.
In 2013, then Attorney General Anand Ramlogan initiated legal action against Jones for alleged mismanagement in the construction of the World Gas to Liquid Plant (WGTL) at Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre site.
One of the very first acts of the Keith Rowley-led Administration in 2015 was Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi’s very controversial decision to withdraw a US$97 Million lawsuit against Jones.
The Govt then proceeded to sell the remnants of this billion-dollar investment for pennies on the dollar to NiQuan Energy Trinidad Ltd, who many consider as “favoured PNM investors”.
At its “official” opening in March 2021, Keith Rowley was hailing NiQuan’s Gas-to-Liquid plant as a prime example of the successful development of the country’s export potential of higher value-added products, through collaboration of the private sector, the banking sector and the Government. Rowley said he is proud to call the opening of NiQuan’s Plant “a triumph.”
Less than month after this pronouncement by Rowley, a massive explosion rocked the plant and NiQuan was forced to halt operations.
In June 2022, NiQuan’s was given permission to restart the plant.
One year later, Allanlane Ramkissoon who was employed with Massy Energy Engineered Solutions Ltd, (MEES), which was contracted by NiQuan died from burns to approximately 40% of his body, plus injuries suffered when he fell some ten feet, to escape the flames in the room in which he was trapped on June 15.
Yet the country cannot find out what caused the 2021 explosion as Rowley is insisting that the Energy Ministry’s report of the incident cannot be published since NiQuan is a private company.
Is Rowley still proud to call NiQuan’s GTL Project “a triumph?”
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