Patrick ManningPORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP):
TRINIDAD MAY put a temporary price cap on certain types of fuel exports to other Caribbean nations to help them through current economic troubles, Prime Minister Patrick Mannings said.
Fixed prices for fuel used in electricity production would be offered to countries in the 15-member Caribbean Community, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Thursday. Details have yet to be finalised, he said.
Trinidad is unlikely to offer discounts on gasolene, which is the largest source of income for Trinidad's oil industry, said Oliver Flax, spokesman for state-owned Petrotrin oil company.
Trinidad produces half of its crude and imports the rest, meaning it also must cope with increased world market prices as a result of the three-month general strike in Venezuela and fears of war in Iraq, Manning said.
Some Caribbean nations have already raised gas prices for consumers, and have asked Trinidad to keep fixed rates on oil exports for the near future.
Manning had last month decided against providing CARICOM countries with a cheaper oil price in the event of a war in the Middle East involving Iraq and United States forces.
"Even with the best will in the world, the proposition is difficult to entertain, given that Trinidad and Tobago imports 50 per cent of the crude that it refines and is also subjected like everyone else to the vagaries created by the escalating conflict," he told fellow Caribbean leaders at the recent Inter-Sessional Summit.
