Liquefied natural gas Archives - Page 2 of 18

Tax Changes For Heavy Fuel Oil Had Minimal Impact On Electricity Bill Increase – Shaw

June 17, 2016 Webmaster

Shaw File

Reacting to concerns that the raising of taxes on fuel has resulted in the spike in electricity bills consumers will face this month, Finance Minister Audley Shaw is arguing that the increase in special consumption tax (SCT) on heavy fuel oil (HFO) is only a nominal percentage of the rate increase the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) announced last week.

In response to questions from The Gleaner, the minister said that of the 12.8 per cent increase the JPS intends to apply, the increase in the SCT on HFO “translates to a mere 2.3 percentage points” or 18 per cent.

“As estimated in the tax measures, the effect of the increase in the overall SCT (specific and ad valorem) on HFO and LNG is approximately J$1.35 billion (or approximately US$11 million) in fuel costs to JPS. This would then approximate to a cost of US0.36 cents per kWh,” the minister said.

“Given the US two-cent-per kWh increase by JPS to consumers and the impact of the increased SCT of US0.36 cents per kwH to JPS costs, the percentage contribution of the tax to the pending JPS electricity bill increase would be 18 per cent. Therefore, the increase in SCT on HFO translates to a mere 2.3 percentage points of the 12.8 per cent electricity bill increase.”

Additionally, Shaw said he at no point stated that the increase would not affect the rates of the JPS as no one specifically asked him about the SCT on HFO.

“With reference to the comments by the minister of finance and the public service at the post-Budget press conference, it should be noted that the minister spoke to a question posed on the impact of the J$7.0 increase in SCT on fuel used for the purposes of ground transportation,” the statement read.

“The minister’s comments were not geared towards the impact of LNG or HFO on electricity prices. There were no questions posed about the effect of the increase in the overall SCT (specific and ad-valorem) of HFO.”

The increase in SCT on HFO that was announced during Shaw’s May 12 Budget presentation was one of three reasons Jamaica’s only power distribution company attributed to this month’s increase.

During his post-Budget press conference on May 13, Shaw, in responding to concerns that the new tax measures would affect light bills, said: “The argument also is that JPS light bills will go up as a result. And I want to remind everyone that this tax (on fuel) does not apply to Jamaica Public Service at all. It is only related to SCT for fuel for road transport only.”

anastasia.cunningham@gleanerjm.com

The Gleaner

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Light bills to go up this month

June 14, 2016 Webmaster

JAMAICA Public Service (JPS) customers will be asked to pay more for their electricity this month — partly due to the recent increase in the Special Consumption tax (SCT) on heavy fuel oil (HFO), the light and power company advised yesterday.

The company said the spike is also due to an increase in the cost of the fuel used for electricity generation, caused by rising oil prices on the international market, and the continued devaluation of the Jamaican dollar.

“This is definitely not the best news for us at JPS, or for our customers,” JPS President and CEO Kelly Tomblin said in a release.

The Government last month introduced the $7 per litre increase as part of the revenue package to help finance its $580-billion 2015/16 Budget, but Finance Minister Audley Shaw, at the time, assured the panicking public that the tax would only apply to fuel at the pumps.

“This tax doesn’t apply to JPS at all. It is only related to SCT for fuel for road transport,” Shaw said at a post-budget press conference. The SCT is expected to yield $6.4 billion for the Government’s coffers.

In announcing the 12.8 per cent increase yesterday, the JPS urged consumers to “conserve on their electricity usage, as the upward trend in oil prices has resulted in an increase in the cost of electricity”.

“The overall increase will result in residential customers paying US$0.21 per kWh on average for electricity in June, compared to US$0.19 in May. This means that the average residential customer using 165kWh of electricity for the month, will see a $500 increase in his or her June bill, which will move from $3,875 in May to approximately $4,372 this month,” the JPS said.

The JPS president stressed that, despite the increase, electricity bills are still 20 per cent lower than they were in June 2015 when customers were paying US0.27 per kWh. The company argued that Jamaica continues to enjoy one of the lowest electricity rates in the region, behind Belize and Trinidad.

Reacting to the news, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) President William Mahfood reiterated that the sector had recognised from the outset that the imposition of the tax on the HFO and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) would have an incremental increase in the cost of electricity of five per cent.

“As far as the price of oil goes, this is a matter that is beyond our control (but) we still feel there should be some amount of hedge put in place to mitigate against future increases in the price of oil,” he remarked, noting that the sector is in full support of the phasing out of older power plants which rely on HFO and diesel.

He said that, while the phasing out of JPS’ 190-megawatt facility at Old Harbour will take a couple more years, eventually more plants will convert to LNG.

Mahfood said also that, like rising oil prices, the devaluation of the dollar against the US currency is out of Jamaica’s hands and can only be militated against by economic growth.

The Observer

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LNG Shipper Under Financial Pressure

June 3, 2016 Webmaster

Golar LNG, the company which secured a two-year contract to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Jamaica, posted huge net losses, has a working capital deficit and its chief executive officer resigned last month.

The shipping company continues to suffer from a slowdown of the LNG industry during a global oil price drop, symptomised by almost US$700 million of negative working capital.

The Jamaica contract is a bright spot for the company amid declining revenue.

“Partially mitigating the loss of this income was revenue earned by the Golar Arctic which commenced its two-year FSU service with New Fortress Energy, offshore Jamaica,” said Golar in financial results issued this week.

Golar also aims to refinance debt and launch new growth initiatives to adapt to the soft global LNG market.

New Fortress, an American company, is contracted by Jamaica Public Service Company to supply LNG to its Bogue plant. The pipeline and terminal have been developed but delivery of the gas, which should have started in April, has been pushed back to August.

On Wednesday, New Fortress promised responses on the implications of Golar’s finances for its contract, but had not followed through up to press time.

Golar reported net losses of US$80 million for its first quarter ending March. The loss was mainly due to its US$61.5 million in operating expenses towering over its US$18.6 million in revenues for the period.

Adjusted for exceptional items, losses would only have amounted to US$41.2 million.

Fundamentally, its revenue gap has defined the accounts since at least 2014. Consequently, Golar posted a US$197.6-million net loss for financial year 2015 and US$43 million in net losses for 2014.

Last month, CEO Gary Smith resigned and its former CEO, Oscar Spieler, retook control of the company. Golar cited restructuring as a necessary move to adapt to the new LNG reality, and the reason for the resignation.

Spieler, a naval architect, previously served as CEO of Golar between July 2009 and June 2011. He has a “successful track record of delivering complex offshore and shipping-related projects,” stated the financials. A release from the company indicated that both men previously traded the CEO position. Smith, who was promoted to CEO in January 2015, previously served as Golar CEO between March 2006 and July 2009.

Amid these changes, the company’s current assets

of US$530 million were overpowered by current liabilities of US$1.23 billion as at March 2016, resulting in negative working capital of US$670 million.

Burning through cash

Additionally, Golar has been burning though its cash holdings, which dropped from US$376 million to US$93 million in the space of one year.

The company still holds a strong US$1.8 billion in equity, but it fell from US$2.2 billion a year earlier.

Golar explained that the fast-growing LNG industry is going through a “rapid transformation” where monetisation of stranded gas, lowering the cost of LNG production and the opening of new markets are all critical success factors.

“An anticipated delinking of LNG prices from oil prices will also create additional demand for LNG. The traditional approach to executing LNG projects favoured by many oil majors may not cost effectively meet this new demand,” the company said.

Natural gas prices are reportedly at seven-year lows. The commodity is currently trading around US$2.40 per 1,000 cubic feet in the US.

At the same time, however, oil continues to trade below US$50 per barrel, which is still less than half the price crude was trading at two years ago.

The Gleaner

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Paulwell Says Fuel Tax Will Impact Consumers Negatively

May 13, 2016 Webmaster

Former Energy Minister Phillip Paulwell says consumers who have been benefiting from reduced electricity rates from the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) over the last 12 months could see a hike in the cost of energy with the Government’s imposition of new taxes on heavy fuel oil and liquefied natural gas.

The JPS recently concluded work to convert its Bogue Power Plant in Montego Bay, St James, to dual-fuel capability.

United States-based New Fortress Energy is expected to bring liquefied natural gas into the island by August, at which point the newly converted Bogue power plant will begin to use the more environmentally friendly fuel.

Paulwell’s concerns came as he spoke with journalists yesterday at the end of Shaw’s opening contribution to the Budget Debate.

“Currently, the JPS does not pay taxes on heavy fuel oil. Government has now imposed a tax both on liquefied natural gas, which will arrive in August of this year, and on heavy fuel oil, so it means a significant increase in the price of electricity that has been trending down by almost 50 per cent over the last year.”

At the same time, Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller is taking the Government to task for “breaking its promise” by imposing new taxes to fund the tax-relief plan.

“All I can say is that they have broken their promise to the Jamaican people – no new tax – but, from all indication of what Minister Shaw said today (yesterday), it is the poor that will suffer,” she said.

Central Manchester MP Peter Bunting argued that the increased taxes would affect everyone, but have a more significant effect on those who earn under $600,000 per annum, and who will have to face increased transport and electricity costs.

He described the tax measures as regressive, noting that persons at the bottom of the society are being burdened to give relief to those earning at a higher level.

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Delay as American LNG now sees 2017 start-up of export project

April 13, 2016 Webmaster

The JPS power plant in Old Harbour

In an update last week on the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) website American LNG— associate company of New Fortress Energy – said there were likely to be delays at its planned US$250-million onshore LNG export facility at Titusville, Florida. Operations will likely begin in 2017, not in April 2016 as projected before.

American LNG is controlled by Fortress Equity Partners, which is also the parent of New Fortress Energy.

New Fortress Energy won out of a field of eight bidders to provide a long-term natural gas solution for JPS power plants, starting with Bogue in Montego Bay.

In March this year, New Fortress also secured the contract to supply gas to the planned Jamaica Public Service Company (JPSco) Ltd 190MW power plant in Old Harbour, St Catherine.

American LNG, on March 7 committed to supply New Energy with up to 2.26 Bcf/year (billion cubic feet per year).

Overall, American LNG received approval in 2015 to export up to 600,000 mt/year of LNG (approximately 30.2 Bcf/year regasified) in ISO containers to countries with which the US has free-trade agreements.

Now it said that developments at its Titusville facility indicated a likely commercial operation date in 2017 instead of April 2016.

Efforts by the Jamaica Observer to find out from New Fortress how this would affect plans for Bogue were not answered up to press time.

New Fortress last year signed the supply accord with JPSCo to provide LNG for the power company’s 120-MW Bogue power plant at Montego Bay. To this has been added Old Harbour.

The 190MW gas-fired plant is intended to replace 292 megawatts of Heavy Fuel Oil Power Plants in Old Harbour and Hunts Bay which are being phased out.

American LNG told the Department of Energy that it is now producing LNG from its Hialeah facility near Miami from which the first export of LNG occurred February 5.

Natural gas for the facility is supplied by Peninsula Energy Services Co to an affiliate of American LNG.

The project has approval to export LNG in ISO containers to non-free trade agreement nations.

In March, LNG World news online reported that American LNG made the first export from the facility on February 5, 2016.

The Jamaica Observer

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Jamaica After Obama: Obama Visit Improved Energy Prospects For Jamaica

April 6, 2016 Webmaster

Kelly Tomblin, president and chief executive officer of the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), is arguing that the visit of United States President Barack Obama to Jamaica last year has improved the energy prospects for the island.

Tomblin, one of the participants in a Gleaner project ahead of Friday’s one-year anniversary of Obama’s visit, said: “Obama’s visit gave Jamaica greater strength in gas negotiations with gas suppliers by signalling support for US gas to Jamaica, thus increasing competition and the number of available suppliers and supporting greater optimisation of Jamaica’s renewable resource.”

During his two-day visit to the island, Obama announced the formation of an energy fund to finance clean-energy projects in the region. He made the announcement at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-US Summit.

“Caribbean countries have one of the highest energy costs in the world. Today, we are announcing new partnerships and a new fund to mobilise private-sector projects in clean energy for the Caribbean and Central America,” he said at the conclusion of the summit.

OPPORTUNITIES NEEDED

The energy fund now forms part of the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative, which aims to reduce the region’s reliance on fossil fuels.

According to Tomblin: “Obama’s visit created more opportunities throughout the energy sector by voicing confidence in Jamaica’s landscape and supporting US investment in Jamaica’s energy sector.”

She called for Jamaica to act fast in capitalising on the opportunities created in the energy sector by the initiatives announced by Obama.

“The only threat exposed during Obama’s visit was the truth that if we don’t act fast, other Caribbean countries will take advantage of the new open door in the energy market and secure the hub position,” she said.

In giving further reflections on the anniversary of the visit, Tomblin highlighted the need for Jamaica to position itself as the hub for the provision of gasolene as a cheaper source of energy.

“Let’s make sure we step fully into this moment he opened up by driving this gas-procurement process through quickly and position Jamaica as an obvious hub for that product which will be key for our neighbours to meet their overall environmental commitments,” she said.

“We cannot afford bureaucracy now.”

Gleaner

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JPS Gets Green Light To Build 190MW Plant

March 29, 2016 Webmaster

The oil-fired JPS power plant in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine is to be replaced with a gas-fired plant.

Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) says the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has approved the construction of the 190-megawatt gas-fired power plant at Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine.

The Office of Utilities Regulation and the Electricity Sector Enterprise Team have also given formal approval of the power purchase agreement for the new facility, the power utility said.

JPS President and CEO Kelly Tomblin said the utility was now finalising details of the project with equipment supplier General Electric Corp, and engineering procurement and construction company Power China. The latter company has been contracted to build the plant.

The arrangements for the project are to be finalised within the next two weeks.

JPS’ disclosure of the project approval follows its weekend announcement, via a posting on its website, that it had finalised an agreement with New Fortress Energy to supply the Old Harbour plant with natural gas.

“We are now at an advanced stage in relation to closing the financing of the project, which we expect to be completed by the end of April,” said the JPS chief executive.

New Fortress is also the utility’s gas supply partner for the power plant at Bogue in Montego Bay.

The Old Harbour plant will be a brand new facility. Once built, JPS plans to dismantle the current oil-fired plant at Old Harbour and return the site to brownfield status.

“We anticipate that this new power plant will be generating electricity at below 13 US cents per kWh when it comes on line, which is remarkable, given the necessity to build new infrastructure and bear the transportation and other logistic costs,” Kelly said.

The timelines for the project were laid out during last November’s public consultations on the environmental impact assessment report.

JPS said yesterday that there are no changes to the timeline for site preparation for the liquefied natural gas plant, which is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2016, giving the utility just days to hit that deadline.

Construction will begin by the second quarter and the plant’s commissioning is expected by July 2018.

JPS entered into a memorandum of understanding in December 2015 with a Chinese company, now identified as Power China to build the 190, megawatt plant.

The Chinese company replaced the Spanish engineering and renewable energy firm Abengoa, which filed for bankruptcy protection just days after striking a deal with JPS.

The Jamaican utility reaffirmed on Wednesday that the 190MW project is expected to cost around US$300 million.

The gas component, which includes development of a terminal and pipelines to the JPS plant, is a separate project to be undertaken by New Fortress. The arrangement is similar to that agreed for the Bogue plant.

JPS also already had dealings with General Electric, which is converting the diesel-fired Bogue plant to a combined cycle operation to burn either diesel or LNG.

The conversion is costing JPS US$22.74 million or about $2.7 billion, and is scheduled to wrap up by midyear.

Gleaner

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New Fortress Secures LNG Ship For Jamaica Project

March 4, 2016 Webmaster

The JPS power station at Bogue, Montego Bay, which is being converted to run on LNG.

New Fortress Energy, the company seeking to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Jamaica, has secured a two-year contract for an LNG vessel and is to start shipping gas this month.

Golar LNG Limited, a Bermuda-registered company which operates the vessel Golar Artic, revealed the contract details to its investors.

“Golar has now concluded a two-year charter agreement with New Fortress Energy Transport Partners LLC (NFE) for the employment of Golar Arctic in Jamaica,” said Golar its statements obtained by the Financial Gleaner.

New Fortress has an agreement with Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) to supply gas to its 120MW power plant at Bogue in Montego Bay, a contract New Fortress will service via gas infrastructure under development at the Montego Bay port. JPS has been mum on the price at which the gas will be supplied to Bogue.

The American company is also expected to develop gas infrastructure and supply JPS’ Old Harbour plant with LNG once it is built, but those negotiations continue.

Bogue is currently being converted to run on gas as well as diesel oil, the fuel on which it was originally commissioned in 2003. General Electric is doing the retrofitting under a US$22.74-million contract from JPS. Bogue will become a combined-cycle plant, capable of switching between gas and diesel.

New Fortress Energy assumes the costs for delivering gas to the burner tip. JPS has no stake in the gas infrastructure project.

New Fortress’ ambition Golar said the deal it has with New Fortress solves a long-standing problem regarding the cost of regasification, and that it fits with New Fortress’ ambition to become a regional supplier of LNG to Caribbean countries.

“Jamaica has long sought to replace liquid fuels with LNG, however, the size of the market has always made it difficult to justify the cost of a conventional floating storage and regasification unit,” said the fuel shipping company.

“New Fortress have now solved this challenge by utilising ship-to-ship transfer of LNG from Golar Arctic on to smaller LNG carriers to service a number of locations within the country of Jamaica.”

Golar Arctic is scheduled to load the first LNG cargo in support of this new business “during March 2016”. Golar and New Fortress believe this new approach to delivering LNG to niche markets has wide application within the Caribbean and other similar markets around the world, stated Golar.

“New Fortress have, with their entrepreneurial approach to business development, shown that downstream LNG markets can be developed within a much shorter time frame than is customary. Similar fast-track solutions will be essential if consumers are to benefit from the large incremental volumes of LNG that will be delivered to market over the next three-four years,” stated Golar.

The Financial Gleaner sought a project update from both JPS and New Fortress, but none came up to press time.

Golar LNG this week reported a fourth-quarter adjusted operating loss of US$35.9 million.

The Gleaner

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Using Oil, LNG Might Negligibly Affect Electricity Prices – JPS

February 17, 2016 Webmaster

The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) says it is unable to definitively state how the use of both automotive diesel oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Bogue power plant in St James will impact the price of electricity to consumers.

It said the power plant currently burns on automotive diesel oil “and we are doing a conversion that adds the capability to also burn natural gas. So we will end up with the ability to burn both fuels at no extra cost”.

Responding to Wednesday Business queries about the rationale for the dual-fuel facility, the JPS said natural gas will be the primary fuel on which the plant operates and automotive diesel oil will be a back-up fuel “in case we have any problems with receiving natural gas”.

It added that under normal conditions, the plant will effectively be a gas-fired power plant.

IMPACTON ELECTRICITY PRICES

As to how it will impact the price of electricity the JPS said in emailed responses that “we cannot speak to the likely impact on electricity prices given the uncertainty of prices in the future (for oil vs LNG)”.

However, it said that the impact is expected to be negligible given that Bogue only represents approximately 10 per cent of the company’s total costs.

“What we can say with fairly good certainty is that the cost of electricity today is 30 per cent lower than it was one year ago, and we expect that trend to continue throughout 2016, given that 80 per cent of our net generation (production) will still be based on oil, 10 per cent will be from natural gas, and we expect renewables to make up 10 per cent of our net generation once the three renewable energy projects currently under construction (for circa 80 megwatts) are completed before the end of 2016.”

The JPS, an integrated electric utility company and the sole distributor of electricity in Jamaica, added that “that means we continue doing a good job as a country of increasing the penetration of renewable, while also diversifying our fuel mix and reducing our overexposure to oil”.

It said that it is hoping to continue doing more of that through the 37 megawatts of renewables currently being pursued by the Office of Utilities Regulation through a request for proposal, as well as its 190 megawatt gas-fired power plant that will be commissioned in mid-2018.

IMPROVING COMPETITIVENESS

Reducing the cost of electricity is critical to improve competitiveness, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest updated memorandum of economic and financial policies.

It said that the action plan prepared by the Electricity Sector Enterprise Team foresees replacing current oil-fired generation capacity with gas, coal and ethane-fired plants to achieve significant cost savings.

Next steps will include the conversion of the Bogue power station from oil to gas, a process which the JPS is currently undertaking.

In addition, said the memorandum, the Government has approved the construction of Jamaica’s first natural gas-fired power plant, a 190-megawatt facility to be built and operated by JPS, and to be completed by 2018. Several renewable energy projects are also under way.

The Government said it will prepare a plan to ensure that all public entities – central government, local government and public bodies – meet their financial obligations in a timely manner.

In the memorandum, the Government also pointed out that urgent actions will be taken to reduce the time needed for entrepreneurs to get an electricity connection. Plans foresee the automation of the work processes within the government electrical regulator and the acquisition of an Application Management and Data Automation (AMANDA) software to streamline procedures for scheduling, inspecting, approving and certifying electrical installations.

An action plan for implementation of the reforms and adoption of the AMANDA system are expected to be completed in fiscal year 2016/17, with support from the Inter-American Development Bank.

The Gleaner

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JPS, New Fortress Pursuing Separate Parts Of LNG Project

January 25, 2016 Webmaster

The oil-fired JPS power plant in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine is to be replaced with a gas-fired plant.

The announcement of an agreement between Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) and a Chinese firm is expected this week for the construction of the new energy plant at Old Harbour.

JPS and American company New Fortress Energy are executing separate projects at Old Harbour – the Jamaican utility company is building a new 190 MW plant, while Fortress is financing and developing the gas infrastructure to supply the plant with LNG.

Together, the projects are estimated at around US$500 million.

JPS said it will have no ownership in the gas infrastructure project nor contribute to the cost of developing it, but will solely be a client of New Fortress, which will build its pipeline to connect to the JPS plant. The same arrangement applies to the gas infrastructure under development by New Fortress in Montego Bay, which will feed gas to JPS’ Bogue plant.

The utility company said previously that the 190 MW combined cycle plant at Old Harbour is expect to cost close to US$300 million.

The name of the Chinese contractor will be disclosed only after the deal to develop the plant is finalised, JPS said. The utilitycompany had previously chosen Abengoa to develop the plant only to be embarrassed when the Spanish firm filed for bankruptcy protection in its home country just days later.

JPS is also in final negotiations with General Electric (GE) as the primary equipment supplier for the Old Harbour plant.

“JPS is currently finalising the agreements with both GE and the ‘EPC’ contractor and coordinating the start of this new generation facility with the completion of an associated LNG facility that will be built to provide gas. These two projects will total over US$500 million and begin operation in early 2018 with full commercial operation by the middle of 2018,” said JPS via email.

EPC is a categorisation, which stands for ‘engineering, procurement and construction’ contractor.

The plant’s advance GE turbines will utilise cleaner burning natural gas, replacing the heavy fuel oil currently used at Old Harbour, and will be able to integrate increased solar, wind and hydro resources as Jamaica moves towards producing more electricity from renewable resources.

“GE will provide four turbines – three gas turbines and one steam turbine the three heat recovery steam generators, the four electrical generators and the major controls,” said JPS.

Once the new Old Harbour plant is built, the current structure will be dismantled, and the property will resort to brownfield status, according to JPS spokeswoman Winsome Callum.

New Fortress is negotiating separately with the Electricity Sector Enterprise Team regarding its gas project, Callum said.

JPS has spent some US$4 million so far in preparing for the upgrade over the past 24 months.

The Gleaner

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