The Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) is calling on Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to clarify whether preference has been given to a foreign company in a bid to acquire the Guaracara Refining Company Ltd.
In a media conference at the OWTU’s Paramount Building headquarters in San Fernando on Friday, president general Ancel Roget called for the resignation of Energy and Energy Industries Minister Franklin Khan over his statements made at the People’s National Movement meeting in Point Fortin on Thursday night.
“Is it a done deal?” Roget asked as he said the union has already begun discussions with its attorney.
Khan had announced that the refining company would be soon be transferred to a new operator, which would most likely be an indigenous company. He said that no local company could handle the size and complexity of the old Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery. He had announced that the bids were in and were being evaluated.
Taking umbrage to the statement, Roget said it appears that Khan has information that the rest of the country does not know, about a bidding process that is yet to be completed. The OWTU, through its recently incorporated Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Ltd, were among 50 bidders.
Last September, following the announcement of Petrotrin’s closure, Rowley said that the refining assets of Petrotrin would be put into a separate company and the OWTU would have been given the first option to own and operate it on the most favourable terms.
The OWTU rejected the offer to purchase the refinery, but following its closure, it met with foreign investors and eventually incorporated its own company to bid for the refinery.
During May Day celebrations, Roget announced that Patriotic was preparing to interview applicants for positions for work in the refinery and that there were approximately 4,000 applications for jobs.
Up to Labour Day, the union was confident in its bid for the refinery. However, the union said that since Khan’s statement on Thursday, they have been inundated with calls from concerned citizens and former workers.
“We find it to be very troubling that at that meeting, the public forum, the minister would have used that stage to alert the country and whoever else was paying attention to his knowledge of a process that has not been completed as yet. I wish to state that the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union has incorporated a company by the name of Patriotic Energy to get involved in the bidding process and to acquire the refinery and all of the other assets at Pointe-a-Pierre for the purposes of providing fuel, energy security and also revenue and foreign exchange for Trinidad and Tobago.
“We are in the process, but we are bound by what is called a non-disclosure agreement, meaning that as part of the process that has a requirement for us to provide certain things. We are not to speak about that publicly. We are not speaking about what stage we are in the process, who are the members of our consortium. All of those things we are not supposed to speak about because we are bound by a non-disclosure agreement,” Roget said.
He said while Rowley did not repeat Khan’s statements, he did not deny it. Putting the refinery in the control of foreigners, he said, is not in the interest of the country.
Roget described Khan’s claim that T&T did not possess the talent to operate a refinery of that size and complexity as insulting. He said Khan was the one who lacked the experience in refining, exploration and marketing of oil.
He said Petrotrin would have contributed $60 billion to the national economy and it was under the People’s National Movement, who appointed the late Malcolm Jones to chair the board of Petrotrin. During Jones’ tenure, the company embarked on several failed projects that led to significant debt, which contributed to its financial challenges, and eventual closure.
He challenged Khan to a debate on Petrotrin’s downfall and said that when taking issue with workers’ salaries, he should compare them to his own and the what he contributes to the country for his pay.