Above: Haiti President Michel Martelly and Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago have signed a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation.

The MoU provides for “cooperative initiatives in energy, energy security and energy exploration,” according to Trinidad’s Ministry of Energy and Energy Affairs.

It also outlines specific projects for collaboration, with an initial period of 10 years and the option for five-year renewals, while providing for the establishment of a task force to push the initiatives forward.

Trinidad Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine said the MoU covers Trinidad’s National Gas Company, Petrotrin and National Energy, and will provide for the supply of LPG, lubricants and other oil products to Haiti.

The agreement was signed by Haiti President Michel Martelly and Trinidad Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar this week on the sidelines of the CARICOM-Japan summit.

“For us in Trinidad and Tobago it means a lot,” Persad-Bissessar told Martelly. “We are very happy that you have sought our energy products rather than from outside.”

Martelly said he was “enthusiastic at getting your products at a better price than elsewhere,” and that while the two countries had a good relationship, a “concrete project like this one was missing.”

Martelly said the deal would allow Haiti to “build and manage infrastructure and port facilities, facilitate  re-establishment of distribution channels, facilitate oil exploration and research.”