Natural gas is on its way to becoming the most important fuel in electricity generation. Gas is cleaner than coal or oil, and concerns about the adverse health impacts of fuels have encouraged its use, as has its utilization in electricity generation, such as combined cycle gas turbines. The world market for natural gas (LNG) has grown rapidly over the past two decades. In April 1999 a regional LNG market was initiated with the commissioning of the liquefaction plant of Point Lisa’s, in Trinidad. With globalization, structural reforms, and market liberalization, more natural gas is being incorporated into the energy supply matrix of many countries. This paper is an extension to the Concept Paper, dated January 17, 2002 prepared by the Ministry of Mining and Energy. It seeks inter alias, to identify the level of competitiveness of possible LNG projects in Jamaica when compared with existing energy sources.

 Source: Prepared by Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, February 15, 2002

Oil has hardly been unfamiliar to humankind. Oil seepages had been tapped in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Persia as far back as 3000 B.C.and used for heating, road making and building. The most famous source was Hit, on the river Euphrates near Babylon. Bitumen was a traded commodity in the ancient Middle East. It was used as a building mortar to bind the walls of Babylon and Jericho. It served as a medicine and its pharmaceutical value was known to the Romans. The Roman naturalist Pliny, in the first century A.D., spoke of its pharmaceutical value which was similar to that current in the United States during the period 1850-1880. According to Pliny it checked bleeding, healed wounds, cured toothache, treated cataracts, stopped diarrhoea, and relieved both rheumatism and fever. These are some of the symptoms for which it was also used, centuries later, in the USA.

Source: Wright, Raymond M. JAMAICA’S ENERGY: Old Prospects, New Resources. Kingston: Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica, 1996.