New T&T ambassadors and high commissioners are to be appointed soon, says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.
Rowley was responding to questions on the issue during a news briefing at the VIP Lounge, Piarco International Airport, on Thursday, after returning home from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta.
The ambassadors and high commissioners had been refusing to resign after the defeat of the People’s Partnership government in the September 7 general election.
T&T has 20 diplomatic missions abroad and appointments of new high commissioners and ambassadors are expected to be made in a few weeks.
Rowley, in response to a question, said it was “not correct to say that we don’t have representation” in missions abroad.
He said even though there was no high commissioner in London, there was someone acting in the post.
Rowley said, “We are now turning our attention to address that, so in the coming weeks you will see those issues being addressed, where we will put proper leadership in place in these positions.”
Rowley also defended the security checks on people attending a meeting he held for T&T nationals in London after the CHOGM.
He said because of international terrorist threats in Europe it was necessary to carry out such security checks.
On the looming gas curtailment issue in T&T, Rowley said that was the major talking point with executives of BP, Shell and BG at a meeting in London. He said his energy adviser, UTT Chairman Professor Ken Julien, Petrotrin Chairman Andrew Jupiter and NGC chairman Gerry Brooks were all involved in that meeting.
He said a follow-up meeting was to take place soon.
“There is gas curtailment and there is gas usage and the question now is who gets the gas that is available and the effects of those decisions. That is where we are right now,” he said.
At the meeting, Rowley said, government officials took steps to raise the issue and get the companies “to do all things possible and necessary to bring into production any and all gas that might be available to us in T&T.”
He said that was particularly with respect to small fields and underperforming fields which were close to existing infrastructure.
“So concerned are we to bring as much gas to market as we can because the prospect for a long period of curtailment is of great concern to us at the level of the Government and the country,” Rowley said.
He said the latest Ryder Scott report on the country’s projected oil and gas reserves was before the energy sub-committee of the Cabinet and would be made public “in the not too distant future.”