Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that liquefied natural gas exports from Central and South America will play an increasingly important role in the European Union's energy supply, with Trinidad and Tobago being a key player.
Minister Szijjártó said in Port of Spain that the foundations of the LNG partnership are in place, and its implementation will coincide with Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of the year. Trinidad and Tobago exported 10 billion cubic metres of LNG last year, with more than 4 billion cubic metres being sold to Europe, he said. Also, the country reached an agreement with Venezuela on joint extraction and exports, he said. Minister Szijjártó, who on Wednesday was scheduled to meet Trinidad and Tobago’s foreign, sports and energy ministers, noted the EU’s Global Gateway scheme which supports, among other things, development projects needed to import LNG from the region. “And this year, a decision was reached on making the operations of the energy and petrochemical industries here more eco-friendly than ever before,” the minister said. Meanwhile, Minister Szijjártó noted that Trinidad and Tobago’s geographical location makes it a destination for illegal migrants and that border protection and the assessment of asylum applications were a strict process.