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Caribbean Islands Petrochemicals
In the late 1980s, Trinidad and Tobago became the world's
second leading exporter of fertilizers behind only the Soviet
Union. Three fertilizer plants constructed during the late 1970s
and early 1980s nearly tripled fertilizer production between 1980
and 1985. Two of these plants, Trinidad Nitrogen Company (Tringen)
and Fertilizers of Trinidad and Tobago (Fertrin), produced
liquefied anhydrous ammonia, whereas the third plant processed
granular urea. Fertilizer production reached 1.6 million tons by
1985, of which over 90 percent were exported. In 1985 about 82
percent of all fertilizers were anhydrous ammonia, and 18 percent
were urea. Although fertilizer exports were on the rise, declining
prices as a result of market oversupply actually reduced export
revenues. In the late 1980s, the government was also considering
projects to process and export liquefied natural gas and ethanol
(an octane enhancer derived from sugarcane).
The Tringen and Fertrin ammonia plants were both government
joint ventures that provided the government with a 51-percent
equity share in each plant. The minority share of the Tringen plant
was owned by the conglomerate W.R. Grace, whose subsidiary,
Fedchem, operated the 800,000-square-meter fertilizer complex
inside Point Lisas. The profitable Tringen plant expanded its
capacity in the late 1980s. By 1988 its original capacity was
expected to more than double to 900,000 tons of ammonia per year.
Fertrin, a joint venture between Amoco and the government, did not
come on-stream until the early 1980s, with a two-unit plant of
2,000-tons-per-day capacity. Although large cost overruns occurred
in the construction phase, ammonia production was expected to be
profitable during the 1980s and 1990s as long as fertilizer prices
stabilized.
The first full year of urea production occurred in 1985 at the
fully government-owned plant at Point Lisas. The plant had a
580,000-ton capacity per year and produced 339,800 tons in 1985, or
about 60 percent of capacity in its first full year. Capacity
utilization was expected to increase by the end of the 1980s as the
plant's exports entered large foreign markets, such as India and
China. In the late 1980s, however, the EEC accused Trinidad and
Tobago of dumping urea on the West European market and was
considering taking action against the islands. Urea production
accounted for roughly a fifth of total fertilizer production in the
country. In 1987 Trintoc was also building a plant to produce urea
and formaldehyde adhesives inside the Point Lisas complex. The
future profitability of the recently opened plant was perceived to
be dependent on world price changes and the government's ability to
find markets.
Trinidad and Tobago's first methanol plant also experienced its
first full year of operations in 1985. Approximately 358,200 tons
of methanol were produced in 1985, and the plant averaged a 90-
percent capacity utilization rate. Over 360,000 tons of methanol
were exported in 1985, which included stocks from the previous
year. The government-owned methanol plant turned a profit in its
first full year of operation; continued profitability was dependent
on the expansion of the world methanol market. Doubts over the rate
of expansion of methanol appeared in Trinidad and Tobago during
1986 when the construction of a second methanol plant, involving a
joint venture between a British firm and the government, was
canceled because of continued uncertainty about energy prices. All
methanol was produced for the export market in the late 1980s, and
it was estimated that in 1985 Trinidad and Tobago supplied
approximately 18 percent of United States imports of methanol. As
in the case of urea, however, the EEC was studying allegations that
Trinidad and Tobago was dumping low-priced methanol on its regional
market.
Data as of November 1987
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