Press Release

The Department of Economics University of the West Indies, St Augustine, in collaboration with the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of the West Indies (TTIWI) and the Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU), hosted the conference entitled “Accounting for the Petro-Dollar” on November 14th and 15th, 2005. The conference drew on a wealth of knowledge from local and foreign presenters.

The conference was officially opened by Senator the Honourable Conrad Enill, Minister in the Ministry of Finance, who delivered the feature address. Min. Enill highlighted the government’s enhanced natural resource management as contributing to lowered inflation and unemployment. The Minister informed the audience that the government’s expenditures and revenues were publicly available. In addition, he noted that new discoveries by BHP, planned exploration by BP, and increased demand by India and China should keep oil prices buoyant for the rest of the decade, allowing for healthy government revenues which will fund public sector investment and human capital development.

Mr. Frank Look Kin, Chief Executive Officer National Gas Company, gave a detailed overview of the natural gas industry from 1995 onward, in which he showed that demands for natural gas by downstream industries was steadily rising relative to reserves. Representatives of the Board of Inland Revenue presented an overview of the government’s fiscal regime in relation to the petroleum sector.

International representatives from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank Oil, Gas and Mining Unit and ‘Publish What You Pay’, emphasized the role of civil society participation in driving the process forward. David Abdullah of the OWTU noted that returns from the hydrocarbon sector should be used in promoting an equitable society – a goal that has not been reached despite large gains from the sector. Several other matters surrounding labour issues were addressed during the conference.

The importance of capturing such information was underscored in presentations by the Sustainable Economic Development Unit (SEDU) of the University of the West Indies. Justin Ram highlighted the importance of capturing the true economic value of natural resources versus the often different market price while Dennis Pantin and Dale James focused on the sustainability of hydrocarbon revenues and the need for prudent planning, with particular reference to natural resource funds, such as the Heritage and Stabilization Fund.

Full presentations and biographical information on presenters are available here www.sta.uwi.edu/conference/petrodollar/presentations.