New Fortress Energy Chairman Wes Edens speaking on the opening day of the Natural Gas Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston last Wednesday.
Billionaire American businessman Wes Edens is giving the Jamaican Government high marks for the role it played in paving the way for his company’s multimillion-dollar investment here.
“I give them an A. I really give them an A,” Edens, the chairman of New Fortress Energy, told the Jamaica Observer last week on the sidelines of the Natural Gas Conference at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.
Edens was responding to the Observer‘s request to grade the Government’s performance in facilitating his company’s entry into Jamaica after New Fortress won a bid to supply the country with liquefied natural gas (LNG) two years ago.
“I think when you look at an economy, the role Government plays is a very substantial one, and all I can relate to is kinda what our experience has been, but they’ve been so positive in terms of identifying problems and coming up with solutions,” said Edens, who spoke on the opening day of the three-day conference.
“Inevitably there’s lots of hurdles and roadblocks you come into. That’s not the point; the point is when you find that, can you come together to solve it, and our experiences in Jamaica are among the top we’ve had anywhere in any country in terms of working together with the Government,” he added.
New Fortress Energy’s is now shipping LNG to Jamaica Public Service (JPS), a long-awaited development that JPS says will lead to lower energy costs.
In August this year JPS signed a power purchase agreement with New Fortress for the construction of a 94-megawatt (MW) power plant at the Jamalco bauxite operations in Clarendon which, Edens said, will be built in the next 18 to 20 months.
In addition, New Fortress will supply the local electricity company’s 190 MW gas-fired power plant being developed in Old Harbour, St Catherine. And, the American company has already started supplying Red Stripe with LNG, as well as JPS’ plant in Bogue, St James.
New Fortress’ investments in Jamaica have topped the $200-million mark and, according to Edens, the company will eventually be providing “well over 400 megawatts” of power.
“We feel great about our involvement in Jamaica and we have lots of things going on,” he said. “What started with a re-gas facility and pipeline in Montego Bay is now expanded to a new terminal being built offshore Old Harbour to support the 190-megawatt power plant that’s being developed there.”
“At Montego Bay we built a truck-loading facility that allows us to ship LNG around the island, and that’s for containers and tankers. The first of those went to Red Stripe, I believe last week,” Edens stated.
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