Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, Ernesto Ke­sar, has con­firmed there are plans to cre­ate jobs in the fence-line com­mu­ni­ties of Point Fortin and La Brea.

Min­is­ter Ke­sar says these com­mu­ni­ties were hit hard by the clo­sure of the Petrotrin Re­fin­ery, and are still in re­cov­ery mode.

He as­sures that Gov­ern­ment is work­ing to­wards cre­at­ing en­er­gy in­dus­try jobs in these com­mu­ni­ties.

“We have launched a com­mu­ni­ty fence-line con­trac­tor pro­gram, which is due to start next month [No­vem­ber 2025],” Min­is­ter Ke­sar said. “This will see the bring­ing back of maybe 50 con­trac­tors per zone—like Point Fortin, La Brea, and so on.”

Ac­cord­ing to the min­is­ter, the num­ber of tar­get­ed and im­pact­ed con­trac­tors could be greater than 50, and the in­ten­tion is to cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties for small- and medi­um-sized en­ti­ties.

“We have de­signed a pro­gramme to bring back in small and medi­um con­trac­tors on the fence-line to en­gage in work,” he ex­plained.

He said the fo­cus now is on rein­vig­o­rat­ing the oil and gas in­dus­tries, down­stream and up­stream, that sup­port the economies of the Point Fortin and La Brea re­gions.

Min­is­ter Ke­sar was a guest on to­day’s edi­tion of CNC3’s The Morn­ing Brew show.