Opposition MP and former energy minister Stuart Young is alleging that one of Trinidad and Tobago’s largest petrochemical operators has informed employees that workers will have to be laid off, amid what he says are continuing problems involving natural gas and commercial terms at Point Lisas. Young made the claim in a statement on Wednesday, September 23, saying the information had reached him that morning. “Word coming to me this morning is that one of the largest petrochemical operators in Trinidad and Tobago, with many plants at Pt Lisas, has informed staff that due to gas issues and uncommercial terms, they are going to have to lay off workers,” Young said. He did not identify the company, disclose the number of employees allegedly affected or provide documentation showing that workers had been formally notified.<\/p>\n
TG News has not independently confirmed the reported layoffs. Young directly blamed the situation on the National Gas Company, accusing NGC of being unable to negotiate commercial arrangements and supply gas on terms acceptable to downstream operators. His allegation represents a potentially significant new development for the Point Lisas Industrial Estate, which has already faced uncertainty surrounding major petrochemical operations. Young pointed to the shutdown of Nutrien’s Trinidad operations and the idling of Methanex’s Titan methanol plant as part of his argument that conditions within the downstream energy sector have deteriorated. Methanex’s Titan plant was indefinitely idled in June 2026, while NGC has also announced new gas sales agreements with several other Point Lisas operators this year.<\/p>\n
Young also claimed that NGC’s gas supply arrangements face further challenges later this year and questioned whether additional plants and jobs could be affected. “How many more plants will shut down and jobs be lost under the UNC?” he asked. He also criticised NGC chairman Gerald Ramdeen and accused the company of attempting to use public relations announcements to distract from problems facing the energy sector. Those accusations are Young’s characterisation of the situation. The central new allegation, however, is his claim that another major Point Lisas operator has already informed employees about impending layoffs. As of Wednesday morning, the company referred to by Young had not been publicly identified and the alleged layoffs had not been independently confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Young Claims Major Point Lisas Operator Has Informed Workers That Layoffs Are Coming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}