Sascha Wil­son

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the Gov­ern­ment is ready to sign off on the sale of the de­funct Petrotrin re­fin­ery to Pa­tri­otric En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd.

He made the an­nounce­ment at the launch of Petrotrin Land Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gramme for ter­mi­nat­ed Petrotrin em­ploy­ees at the Pa­lo Seco Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School yes­ter­day.

“It is the in­ten­tion of the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in the com­ing days, to sign off with the OW­TU and be­gin­ning of the way back for the Petrotrin re­fin­ery, known to­day as the Guaracara, as soon as the OW­TU is ready to com­mit it­self to what I had said in this state­ment to­day and pro­vide its com­mit­ment by its sig­na­ture.”

The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union’s Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd was cho­sen as the pre­ferred bid­der for the re­fin­ery from amongst 77 com­pa­nies that showed in­ter­est in ac­quir­ing the as­sets af­ter the Gov­ern­ment closed down the re­fin­ery in No­vem­ber 2018.

Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies was the on­ly com­pa­ny that made an up­front pay­ment of­fer of US$700 mil­lion. Calls to OW­TU pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get for com­ment yes­ter­day were un­suc­cess­ful. How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands Ro­get was in a meet­ing with ex­ec­u­tives of Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies up to lat­er last evening.

Speak­ing in Fyz­abad last month, how­ev­er, Ro­get said they were close to ac­quir­ing the re­fin­ery.

Yes­ter­day, Row­ley said with the sign­ing of the agree­ment the coun­try would have solved yet an­oth­er one of its ma­jor prob­lems, as the restart of the re­fin­ery will stim­u­late the cre­ation 7,000 jobs in the short and medi­um-term.

How­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter said this out­come has not been with­out pain and ac­ri­mo­ny.

Out­lin­ing the salient points in­clud­ed in the draft agree­ment Gov­ern­ment had sent to Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies in March, Row­ley said this in­cludes the sched­ule of work and costs of the re­fin­ery start-up ac­tiv­i­ties and the restart date of the re­fin­ery to be 12 months from the clos­ing date.

Row­ley warned, how­ev­er, that this deal and all the suc­cess­es his Gov­ern­ment had made in Petrotin de­ba­cle will be dec­i­mat­ed if the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress wins the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tion and called on the OW­TU and cit­i­zens to pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing.

“So when you hear the Op­po­si­tion that thinks it can win an elec­tion, be­cause ac­ci­dents do oc­cur, say­ing that if they come in­to gov­ern­ment they, the Op­po­si­tion, which will be the gov­ern­ment, the gov­ern­ment will aban­don all of this, this sane, sober, trans­par­ent and se­ri­ous process, they will aban­don this and the gov­ern­ment will re­turn to op­er­ate a gov­ern­ment re­fin­ery in Pointe-a-Pierre,” Row­ley said.

“Two things you need to note there, the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy men­tioned one and that is even as they are say­ing that, the bond­hold­ers who raised the mon­ey to al­low the coun­try, through Her­itage (Pe­tro­le­um), to ser­vice that US$850 mil­lion loan that we dealt with last year, they would have heard the in­com­ing gov­ern­ment say­ing that the gov­ern­ment was go­ing to open the mon­ey-los­ing re­fin­ery. That im­me­di­ate­ly would call in­to ques­tion the sta­tus of that loan and its doc­u­ments and its con­tracts and if they pro­ceed with their fool­ish­ness, God for­bid that on Au­gust 10 they be­come the gov­ern­ment and some­time af­ter they pro­ceed to keep that promise, it would mean that we are back not just to square one but square one mi­nus be­cause the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance will then have to treat with the bond­hold­ers.

“Im­me­di­ate­ly the coun­try would be down­grad­ed and if they have to ser­vice that loan to save the day, im­me­di­ate­ly we will be a can­di­date on the road to the IMF.”

He added, “I want to say to all of you, OW­TU and WTUO, on Au­gust 10 you have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to come out and de­fend the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go the same way they de­fend­ed you when you were in there and we have dodged a bul­let with that US$850 mil­lion loan be­cause had we not con­duct­ed our busi­ness prop­er­ly…it would have been a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent state of af­fairs in Trinidad and To­ba­go again.”

The land dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­gramme for for­mer Petrotrin work­ers who were ter­mi­nat­ed will see them be­ing giv­en res­i­den­tial and agri­cul­tur­al plots around the coun­try. The pro­gramme will be done in two phas­es, with 1,000 lots be­ing giv­en out in the first phase.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says the Gov­ern­ment is ready to sign off on the sale of the de­funct Petrotrin re­fin­ery to Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd.

He made the an­nounce­ment at the launch of Petrotrin Land Dis­tri­b­u­tion Pro­gramme for ter­mi­nat­ed Petrotrin em­ploy­ees at the Pa­lo Seco Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School yes­ter­day.

“It is the in­ten­tion of the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go, in the com­ing days, to sign off with the OW­TU and be­gin­ning of the way back for the Petrotrin re­fin­ery, known to­day as the Guaracara, as soon as the OW­TU is ready to com­mit it­self to what I had said in this state­ment to­day and pro­vide its com­mit­ment by its sig­na­ture.”

The Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union’s Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd was cho­sen as the pre­ferred bid­der for the re­fin­ery from amongst 77 com­pa­nies that showed in­ter­est in ac­quir­ing the as­sets af­ter the Gov­ern­ment closed down the re­fin­ery in No­vem­ber 2018.

Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies was the on­ly com­pa­ny that made an up­front pay­ment of­fer of US$700 mil­lion. Calls to OW­TU pres­i­dent gen­er­al An­cel Ro­get for com­ment yes­ter­day were un­suc­cess­ful. How­ev­er, Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands Ro­get was in a meet­ing with ex­ec­u­tives of Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies up to lat­er last evening.

Speak­ing in Fyz­abad last month, how­ev­er, Ro­get said they were close to ac­quir­ing the re­fin­ery.

Yes­ter­day, Row­ley said with the sign­ing of the agree­ment the coun­try would have solved yet an­oth­er one of its ma­jor prob­lems, as the restart of the re­fin­ery will stim­u­late the cre­ation 7,000 jobs in the short and medi­um-term.

How­ev­er, the Prime Min­is­ter said this out­come has not been with­out pain and ac­ri­mo­ny.

Out­lin­ing the salient points in­clud­ed in the draft agree­ment Gov­ern­ment had sent to Pa­tri­ot­ic En­er­gies in March, Row­ley said this in­cludes the sched­ule of work and costs of the re­fin­ery start-up ac­tiv­i­ties and the restart date of the re­fin­ery to be 12 months from the clos­ing date.

Row­ley warned, how­ev­er, that this deal and all the suc­cess­es his Gov­ern­ment had made in Petrotrin de­ba­cle will be dec­i­mat­ed if the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress wins the Au­gust 10 gen­er­al elec­tion and called on the OW­TU and cit­i­zens to pre­vent this from hap­pen­ing.

“So when you hear the Op­po­si­tion that thinks it can win an elec­tion, be­cause ac­ci­dents do oc­cur, say­ing that if they come in­to gov­ern­ment they, the Op­po­si­tion, which will be the gov­ern­ment, the gov­ern­ment will aban­don all of this, this sane, sober, trans­par­ent and se­ri­ous process, they will aban­don this and the gov­ern­ment will re­turn to op­er­ate a gov­ern­ment re­fin­ery in Pointe-a-Pierre,” Row­ley said.

“Two things you need to note there, the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy men­tioned one and that is even as they are say­ing that, the bond­hold­ers who raised the mon­ey to al­low the coun­try, through Her­itage (Pe­tro­le­um), to ser­vice that US$850 mil­lion loan that we dealt with last year, they would have heard the in­com­ing gov­ern­ment say­ing that the gov­ern­ment was go­ing to open the mon­ey-los­ing re­fin­ery. That im­me­di­ate­ly would call in­to ques­tion the sta­tus of that loan and its doc­u­ments and its con­tracts and if they pro­ceed with their fool­ish­ness, God for­bid that on Au­gust 10 they be­come the gov­ern­ment and some­time af­ter they pro­ceed to keep that promise, it would mean that we are back not just to square one but square one mi­nus be­cause the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance will then have to treat with the bond­hold­ers.

“Im­me­di­ate­ly the coun­try would be down­grad­ed and if they have to ser­vice that loan to save the day, im­me­di­ate­ly we will be a can­di­date on the road to the IMF.”

He added, “I want to say to all of you, OW­TU and WTUO, on Au­gust 10 you have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to come out and de­fend the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go the same way they de­fend­ed you when you were in there and we have dodged a bul­let with that US$850 mil­lion loan be­cause had we not con­duct­ed our busi­ness prop­er­ly…it would have been a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent state of af­fairs in Trinidad and To­ba­go again.”

The land dis­tri­b­u­tion pro­gramme for for­mer Petrotrin work­ers who were ter­mi­nat­ed will see them be­ing giv­en res­i­den­tial and agri­cul­tur­al plots around the coun­try. The pro­gramme will be done in two phas­es, with 1,000 lots be­ing giv­en out in the first phase.

Ad­di­tion­al

Salient points of Govt’s pro­posed draft agree­ment deal for the Petrotrin re­fin­ery with Pa­trotric En­er­gies and Tech­nolo­gies Com­pa­ny Ltd

• The com­ple­tion of the de­tailed in­spec­tion of the as­sets, in­clu­sive of an in­spec­tion test plan

• The sched­ule of work and costs of the re­fin­ery start-up ac­tiv­i­ties

• The con­clud­ed de­fin­i­tive fi­nanc­ing terms for the sell­er’s cred­it note with Trinidad Petrotrin Hold­ings Ltd and Trafigu­ra or any oth­er sim­i­lar en­ti­ty

• The re­ceipt of all li­cens­es and ap­provals and suc­cess­ful ne­go­ti­a­tions of all col­lat­er­al agree­ments

• As­so­ci­at­ed land for lease­hold will be for a pe­ri­od of 99 years

• The pe­ri­od of han­dover of the lo­gis­tics as­sets, in­clu­sive of the ter­mi­nalling op­er­a­tions of Paria, fol­low­ing the start-up of the re­fin­ery as­sets by six months with writ­ten safe­guards of na­tion­al fu­els sup­ply and fu­els sup­ply se­cu­ri­ty, mean­ing that the re­fin­ery will have to be up and run­ning for six months be­fore the Gov­ern­ment con­cludes the hand­ing over of the ter­mi­nal arrange­ments and doc­u­men­ta­tion of the re­quired li­cens­es with safe­guards for the sup­ply of fu­el to the na­tion.

• The restart date of the re­fin­ery to be 12 months from the clos­ing date.