Dominican Republic to export natural gas to the Caribbean

Houston.- Dominican Republic will become a natural gas distributionand re-export center to the Caribbean region this year, Caribbean TradeConsortium and Commonwealth Roundtable president Fernando Gonzalez Nicolas affirmedSaturday.

As guest speaker in the "Conference on Gas Transportand Marketing in the Americas" held in Houston and hosted by the British organizationInforma, Gonzalez said the center will have a positive impact on the Dominicaneconomy with “many collateral benefits to our country.”

“As natural gas and propane gas increase their presence inpower generation throughout the Caribbean region, Dominicans will be the firstafter Trinidad in supplying natural gas to the region, through the re-export ofnatural gas,” the business leader said.

He said given tourism’s vital importance to the Caribbean, theuse of clean fuels such as propane and natural gas will spread, “because they don’tharm the environment.”

In a statement, Gonzalez also noted that since the power companiesconsume the most fuel, the region’s trend is toward fewer fossil fuels and morenatural gas and propane.

He acknowledged however that the Caribbean countries facekey technical and financial challenges to convert to natural gas.

Niebert Blair, of Caricom, and Andrew Clifton, ExecutiveDirector of the International Society of Tanker Ships and Terminal Operatorsincluding the US, Europe and Asia also participated in the English-Caribbean conference.