00:00Energy Minister Stuart Young confirms Trinidad and Tobago is now importing
00:05fuel from Jamaica, marine fuel to be exact, and he's giving the assurance that
00:10the arrangement is mutually beneficial. Paria has been buying fuel from all over
00:16the world at a profit. We buy it and we sell it at a profit. We use some
00:20domestically. None of this 500,000 barrels is for domestic. It is being used
00:26in our bunkering operations. We're purchasing it. It is marine fuel that is
00:30then being sold to vessels that come into Trinidad's waters at a profit. So it
00:35is a net foreign exchange earner and a fraction, 500,000 barrels, compared to 17
00:43million that Paria purchases a year. So this is complete mischief. It changes
00:50nothing. The Energy Minister adds this arrangement supports the principles of
00:55As he notes, Jamaica is a close trading partner of TNT. We have a trade surplus
01:02in our trading with Jamaica of hundreds of millions of dollars in Trinidad and
01:09Tobago's fuel. The Energy Minister also sought to provide an answer to the many
01:13people who are asking how it is that Jamaica's petrol jam can turn a profit
01:19when petrochain was allegedly unable to. Running a refinery that is 38,000
01:25barrels is a lot simpler in operation and a lot commercially simpler as well
01:32than a refinery that's 175,000 barrels of oil. Remember we had reached a stage
01:36in our production and it had started in the 2010 to 15 period where
01:41unfortunately our domestic production had dipped below that point and we had
01:45to be purchasing. By the time the refinery was preserved and closed in
01:492018, we had to be importing about 100,000 barrels of oil a day. By the
01:55time it was shut down, we had to write off over $12 billion in losses.
02:01According to a statement from Paria, the arrangement is a six month contract for
02:06very low sulfur fuel oil with a maximum volume of 540,000 barrels at an
02:13approximate cost of U.S. $50 million. The inaugural shipment came in on
02:18February 1st, 2025. Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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