Chairman of the National Gas Company Gerald Ramdeen said a leak in one of its pipelines has cost the country billions of dollars.
Mr. Ramdeen highlighted the leak on the Galeota gas pipeline at a press conference on Friday.
“The isolation of the 24-inch subsea pipeline resulted in a significant loss of operational flexibility for NGC, culminating in an estimated revenue loss to the National Gas Company in excess of US$277 million.”
The NGC Chairman noted that the delay in the repair to the pipeline was excessive.
“That is in excess of 1.5 billion TT dollars during the four and a half year period that the 24-inch pipeline was out of service. The diversion of the 350 million standard cubic feet of gas previously transported on the 24-inch pipeline had to be transferred to our 30-inch pipeline, which was constructed in 1982 and accelerated wear and tear. The higher throughput also elevated the likelihood of a pipeline failure given the age of the pipeline.”
Mr. Ramdeen noted that the leak was located offshore in 10 feet of water and stressed that the diversion of the gas posed a serious threat to the country.
“A complete loss of volume on the 30-inch pipeline could have resulted in a total volume loss to NGC of 500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day and which would have triggered deep curtailment to the downstream sector.”
Mr. Ramdeen said the leak was finally repaired in December 2025 at a cost of TT$40 million.