- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Aujourd'hui 04:49

Tabling Niquan report

IN A robust reversal of the previous government's position on the 2023 explosion at Niquan that cost Allenlane Ramkissoon his life, the sitting government tabled the report that investigated the circumstances of the accident in Parliament, echoing the conclusion by Justice Avason Quinlan-Williams that the decision to keep the report secret was an act of self-preservation by the Energy Ministry. The entire Niquan gas-to-liquids (GTL) project was dogged by big dreams and dashed expectations from the start. The plant began as a joint venture between Petrotrin and World GTL in 2005, but by 2018, when Niquan acquired the plant for a fraction of its cost, it was only 85 per cent complete. The technology itself is 105 years old and was used by Germany in World War II to create synthetic fuels. There are just five plants operating worldwide. For Petrotrin, it was a way to supplement the refinery's output by taking advantage of then abundant supplies of natural gas. But after spending more than US$399 million and producing nothing it was mothballed by Petrotrin in 2010. The People's Partnership government approved the sale of the plant to Niquan by its receiver in 2014. The incoming PNM government revived the project in 2016, seeing only an upside in a facility that would use less than one per cent of domestic gas production at the time. The unused plant would become a revenue-generating resource, producing 2,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day, but the timing was poor, and cash was short. A month after the ribbon was cut in 2021 to ceremonially open the plant, there was an explosion that raised concerns about operational safety. In September 2023, the explosion that fatally burned Mr Ramkissoon led to a shutdown of the plant. After occupational safety and health investigations, the plant was cleared for operations but owed US$21 million to the state for gas delivered. Niquan was out of money and out of gas. When the plant was shuttered in April, the losses were staggering. Instead of generating income, the Niquan plant created rivers of red ink, debts that will probably never be settled unless a buyer for the heavy equipment of the plant can be found. But a deadly bullet might also have been dodged. Those workers who went home were spared exposure to what the report claimed were multiple points of failure, including poor training, incomplete documentation of procedures and overlooked safety checks. When Mr Ramkissoon was mortally injured, he had not been fitted with the harness required for his task. The fire alarm was not triggered. The emergency contact number didn't work. Night-shift workers had never drilled responses. The ambulance took an hour to arrive. "Health and safety were poorly managed," the report concluded, with professional understatement. The 2022 Paria diving tragedy enquiry and the court's ruling on the Niquan report both point on the urgent need for robust state protocols to ensure that not another worker's life is lost in the service of the energy industry. The post Tabling Niquan report appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.