Chairman of the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago, Gerald Ramdeen, has defended his board’s decision to increase natural gas prices for light industrial consumers from US$3 to US$5 per one million British Thermal Units of gas.
The price of gas to local light industrial consumers was increased in January 2026.
Mr. Ramdeen maintained that the decision was driven by the need to safeguard the company’s core assets and ensure the sustainability of its operations.
“The pipeline system that NGC operates, which is our greatest asset, requires maintenance and upkeep. NGC requires a tariff to do the business and that takes me to a very important point: the administrative cost to run the NGC when we entered into office was $1.7 billion—1.7 billion TT dollars to run the NGC per year.”
Mr. Ramdeen said the decision has already benefited operations at NGC.
“We’ve cut that expense by $800 million and that is why we’ve taken these hard decisions now that will redound for the benefit of the citizens of this country because, at the end of the day, they must understand the NGC’s sole shareholder is Corporation Sole, which translates into the citizens of the country, this country.”
NGC’s Chairman used Trinidad Cement Limited as an example. He said TCL is classified as a light manufacturer despite the fact that it consumes between 12 and 15 mmbtus per day.
“It is not fair that in this country the manufacturing sector enjoys cheap gas, and they enjoy subsidised electricity that has caused the power producers and T&TEC to have that bill of $10 billion.”
Mr. Ramdeen made the comments while appearing as a guest on Trinidad and Tobago Today on Wednesday.