Is Caribbean dependence on Petrocaribe energy deals coming to an end? Don’t depend on Venezuela’s Petrocaribe. That was the subtext of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s high-level meeting on January 26 with Caribbean heads of government in Washington D.C., according to a report from the Associated Press. Biden told regional leaders that the world was in the midst of a seismic shift in the global economy, which he described as the ascendancy of the Americas as the epicenter of energy production in the world. “We have more oil and gas rigs running in the United States, than all the rest of the world combined. Mexico, Canada and the United States is the new epicenter of energy — not the Arabian Peninsula. It is the new epicenter of energy in the 21st century,” he said. “An integrated North America, working to promote energy security beyond our borders can be a major asset for the entire hemisphere. And it’s profoundly in the self-interest of the United States to see the Caribbean countries succeed as prosperous, secure, energy-independent neighbors—not a world apart, but an integral part of the hemisphere, where every nation is middle class, democratic and secure.” All the countries of the region, except Cuba, participated in closed talks with Biden and other U.S. officials, as well as representatives of the European Union, the U.N., and multilateral financing agencies such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. The focus was on exploring ways to help Caribbean countries use alternative energy sources to reduce the nearly complete dependence on oil that has made energy expensive in the region. Biden cited examples of ongoing clean energy projects in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Aruba, St Lucia and Barbados. The words “Venezuela”, “Petrocaribe” and “OPEC” may not have been mentioned, but the announcement of OPIC made the intention clear enough. “The U.S. government is in the process of establishing a team, a beefed-up team of Overseas Private Investment Corporation, known as OPIC, devoted entirely to the Caribbean,” Biden said. “In the past most of our effort has been developing in other parts of the world. But this new focus, we have taken on in a shorthanded agency, an entirely new team to ensure that we focus on the Caribbean, to ensure projects can be connected to financing.” On January 26, OPIC disbursed its first installment, $90 million, for a wind energy project in Jamaica to begin construction in June. But the fate of Petrocaribe may not be so grim, not so clear-cut. Speaking in an interview at the T&T Energy Conference 2015 in Port-of-Spain, Sir Ronald Sanders said that Petrocaribe will survive the global drop in oil prices, once they remain above US$40 per barrel. “You have to remember that Petrocaribe is not a gift. People have an idea that Petrocaribe is Venezuela giving away oil; it’s not.” Sanders explained that the arrangements through which favourable oil prices were being accessed by Caribbean countries amounted to a long-term loan, one that that still has to be repaid, albeit at favourable rates that allows those countries to focus their limited resources on other necessary development projects in the short to medium term. “Had it not been for Petrocaribe over the last five years, I don’t know how those countries would have survived,” Sanders said. Source:: Guardian Business The post Is Caribbean dependence on Petrocaribe energy deals coming to an end? appeared first on Trinidad & Tobago Online. #trinidad
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 22:38:46 +0000
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