PATRIOTIC SAYS PREFERRED FINANCIER WAS APPROVED

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Patriotic Energy Services Co Ltd is responding to the statement made by the Energy Minister in Parliament that it's second bid for the refinery failed because of a forged banking document.  Patriotic says the Cabinet appointed Evaluation Committee and Scotiabank International both accepted its preferred financier.  Patriotic also says that its "preferred financier can stand the scrutiny of any due diligence process.  Juhel Browne reports.

Transcript

00:00Patriotic Energy Services Company Limited is a company owned by the Oilfields Workers

00:05Trade Union.

00:06The union, which represented workers at Petrotrin before that state-owned oil company, was restructured

00:12by the government into Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited.

00:16That move by the government in late 2018 resulted in the closure of the oil refinery in Pointer

00:22Pier.

00:23It remains closed.

00:24Patriotic previously sought to be the preferred bidder for the refinery but was unsuccessful.

00:30The government says the refinery will be restarted once a preferred bidder is selected, following

00:36a tendering process which involves a cabinet-appointed evaluation committee and Scotiabank International.

00:42Patriotic again sought to be the preferred bidder.

00:45During the 2025 budget debate in the House of Representatives on Friday, the Energy Minister

00:50explained why Patriotic's second bid was not accepted as he referred it to a document

00:56that he said appears to be a swift message of a cash wire transmission on behalf of Patriotic.

01:02...forged document because when the due diligence was done, of course, no US$1.5 billion was

01:09received by Patriotic at any local bank.

01:12So unfortunately, and yes it is stamped by some unknown person, certified true, but of

01:19course it's easy to verify this because it is either that it exists or it doesn't exist

01:27and I can stand here without fear of contradiction, here and outside, as I might do later on,

01:34and say it is not a real document.

01:36So therefore, unfortunately, they could not move forward.

01:41On Saturday, Patriotic issued a statement in which it claimed that the statement made

01:45by Energy Minister Young in Parliament on Friday, October 4th, was misleading and mischievous.

01:53Patriotic said what the Minister presented on the Parliamentary cover was not Patriotic's

01:57financial partner that met with the Cabinet-appointed Evaluation Committee.

02:02Patriotic said the solely selected financier would have been submitted to the Evaluation

02:07Committee and Scotiabank International, which both accepted as Patriotic's preferred financier.

02:14Patriotic further said that the Evaluation Committee would have interviewed and vetted

02:18Patriotic's preferred financier and at no time did Scotiabank International or the Evaluation

02:23Committee raise any concern about the preferred financier.

02:28Patriotic emphasized that there was some level of comfort and satisfaction with the preferred

02:33financial partner.

02:35Patriotic says that they remain confident that their preferred financier can stand the

02:39scrutiny of any due diligence process and invites same.

02:45In his 2025 Budget Statement in the House of Representatives on Monday, September 30th,

02:50Finance Minister Colm Imbert announced that there is now a shortlist of three companies

02:54to restart the refinery via the evaluation process.

02:59They are the locally based CRO Consortium, Inca Energy LLC based in the USA, and Oando

03:06PLC, a company based in Nigeria.

03:09Jule Brown, TV6 News.

03:15Jule Brown, TV6 News.

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