The Trinidad & Tobago government says it expects to take a decision by the end of August this year regarding the sale of the state-owned oil refinery, Petrotrin, which had been closed in 2018 mainly due to its indebtedness, according to a report in the Wed-nesday June 26th issue of the Trinidad Guardian.
The country’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, is reported in the Guardian as saying that “within a month’s time,” his administration will be seeking to put in place a team “to evaluate the offers being made by those interested in running the refinery,” which, prior to its closure in 2018 had been operating at a stupendous loss of around TT$8 billion over the last five years, apart from having ‘run up’ a bill of $3 billion in taxes and royalties to the government of the twin-island Republic.
The Guardian report states, however, that the Trinidad and Tobago government’s attempt to part company with the refinery could run into a roadblock arising out of an “assertion” by the country’s Oilfields Workers Trade Union that the refinery could not be sold without its permission. The affordability of a state-run oil refinery in Trinidad and Tobago has been a matter of animated discourse for some time and back in May 2018 the Stabroek News had quoted “a senior Cabinet Minister” as saying that the country could no longer afford to sustain its oil refining operations at the cost of losses of billions of dollars.
The issue of the planned sale of Petrotrin had reportedly resulted in ‘exchanges’ between the Trinidad and Tobago government over the issue of the country distancing itself from the oil refining industry. Earlier this month the energy publication, NS Energy, had reported that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago was in discussion with the United States-based firm, Quanten on the sale of Petrotrin, the TT Energy Minister was quoted as saying.
