Rescuing Barbados from rising fuel import bill

Barbados is pushing ahead to achieve its 2030 target to become a 100 per cent green and carbon neutral island state.

With a fuel import bill still rising, Minister of Energy, Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Kerrie Symmonds, insists that the country must be rescued from its reliance on imported fossil fuels to supply its energy needs.

He was at the time addressing the National Petroleum Corporation’s 40th anniversary church service at Sanctuary Empowerment Centre, Country Road, St. Michael, yesterday.

“My Ministry is piloting an effort to make Barbados 100 per cent fossil fuel free and carbon neutral by the year 2030. In other words, by 2030 we do not want to be importing any oil, and those types of petroleum products from anywhere. We want the island to be powered by generating electricity and operating our vehicles from the natural resources that we have,” he told the congregation.

“In a good year, we may spend $450 million to $500 million on importing fuel in Barbados. If there is a war in the Persian Gulf like in Iraq, or some ‘noise’ between the United States and Saudi Arabia or elsewhere, the oil prices will go up, as they are doing now. And the fact of the matter is that we have gone as high as $800 million importing fuel for Barbados. So that your well-being, and mine, depends on a ‘noise’ somewhere overseas. Your success in life in many ways is impacted by something you have no control over, but we depend on that… And we want to rescue Barbados from that reliance.

“It is important for us to understand that it is about independence in energy. And that as you come to rely more on the natural things like the sunlight to generate energy, you create independence at the level of the household. So that if you have the photovoltaic panels on your roof, you don’t have to worry about anybody’s cost of energy because you are generating enough to keep your household going. And similarly, for industry and commercial purposes, we make things more competitive because it is cheaper,” he further pointed out.

Minister Symmonds also took the opportunity to salute the staff, management, and Board of Directors at NPC, both present and past, for the hard work and distinguished stewardship that they have done to bring the corporation to the point “where it has literally and figuratively been the fuel of the engine for Barbados”.

The statutory body was set up in 1981 with the responsibility for the management of the distribution of natural gas supply in Barbados for domestic, commercial, and industrial use.

The NPC, according to the Energy Minister, has been a good partner in the development course of the country.

“Forty years is a long time and if you look back you can see some of the successes of this Corporation. It is a real truth to say at the beginning there was a lot of doubt as to whether there would be the wherewithal financially for natural gas to be sent to a wide percentage of the community in Barbados. In the early stages, 3,000 to 4,000 was seen to be a large amount, and to get to 5,000 was a Herculean task, but today they’re at 22,000 customers.

“In 2003, the National Petroleum Corporation would have partnered with the tourism sector and put air-conditioning units into Accra Beach Hotel and Crane Beach Hotel which are fuelled by natural gas, driving down the cost of room rates in Barbados. Similarly, in about 2007, we would have had our first natural gas vehicle and that started a conversation across this island about efficiency in the transportation sector, and again they were a lead player in that,” Minister Symmonds highlighted.