Young: Niquan has a safety plan

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Energy Minister Stuart Young. –

ENERGY Minister Stuart Young said Niquan Energy has a safety plan in place to deal with any future incidents at its Pointe-a-Pierre-based plant.

He made this statement in response to questions from Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee in the House of Representatives on Friday.

On June 13, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said on April 14, Niquan was given approval by the Energy Ministry “for reintroduction of natural gas to the facility.”

This was for the primary purpose of lighting the flare pilot burners and producing medium pressure steam, using the auxiliary boilers for cleaning lines after the plant’s shutdown after an explosion there last April.

Young said the report into that incident was completed by the ministry in March.

“It is not considered appropriate for the report to be published at this time or at all, until the legal implications of doing that are carefully examined.”

Young said it is necessary “for all concerned to be given a proper opportunity to review and respond to the many findings of that report and the recommendations of the investigating team and to take the appropriate action.”

He added, “Niquan has a facility emergency management plan which covers both on-site and off-site facilities.”

Young said the plan allows for the company to seek help from external agencies in the event of an incident off-site of its facility.

“These services include fire services, police, hospital services as well as the EMA (Environmental Management Authority) and Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) as appropriate.”

The plan, Young continued, also caters for the impact of any incident on communities close to Niquan’s plant.

Asked by Lee whether Niquan had any consultations with those communities about this plan, Young said he had no knowledge of this since he was part of the regulator (Energy Ministry) and not Niquan.

He was certain that Lee as Pointe-a-Pierre MP could get that information from the company and his constituents

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