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  • 9 months ago
The search for a preferred bidder to restart this country's mothballed refinery in Point-a-Pierre could soon be over.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was optimistic on Monday when he spoke at an Energy Conference in Port of Spain.

Juhel Browne reports.
Transcript
00:00As I depart from office, I feel a sense of achievement in having my team address the
00:06challenges we encountered upon my arrival in 2015, and I am optimistic about the future
00:14of the energy sector, which is in good hands.
00:17Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley's declaration on day one of the Energy Chamber's 2025 Energy
00:24Conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, as he prepares to resign as
00:29the head of the government later this year, with Energy Minister Stuart Young to lead
00:34the government.
00:35And the Prime Minister made a major announcement in what he said basically would be his last
00:42address to the Energy Conference as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.
00:48Given the careful, detailed work that has been concluded, and our efforts to restart
00:53the refinery operations, it is expected that Cabinet could soon be in a position to receive
01:00and sign off on the recommendations from the Technical Evaluation Committee, which have
01:06been hard at work for the last few months.
01:09The government, led by Dr Rowley, has been trying to sell or lease the state-owned oil
01:14refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre since it was closed down in late 2018 as part of the restructuring
01:20of the state-owned oil company from PetroTrim to Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited, TPHL.
01:26This has been blamed by the opposition for Trinidad and Tobago's foreign exchange challenges,
01:31a claim the government has denied.
01:34On Monday, Prime Minister Rowley made an apparent reference to the oilfields workers' trade
01:38union's unsuccessful bid to restart the oil refinery.
01:43The first offers were found to be less than satisfactory and were aborted.
01:48Following a review of the criteria, expressions of interest were re-invited for the sale or
01:55lease of the Guaracara refinery and its ancillary assets.
02:00The expressions of interest were evaluated by an evaluation committee comprising industry
02:07professionals, from whose recommendation three companies were shortlisted.
02:13In September of last year, the Finance Minister told the Parliament that the three shortlisted
02:17companies were the locally based CRO Consortium, the US-based Inca Energy LLC, and Oando PLC,
02:26which is based in Nigeria.
02:28The next phase of the process comprises the submission by the companies of firm proposals
02:35and negotiations with the evaluation committee for selection of the most suitable company.
02:42It is anticipated that the negotiations will be completed before the end of February 2025.
02:51Hopefully, an announcement of the selected company will come shortly thereafter.
02:58And with Guyana and Suriname experiencing hydrocarbon booms, the Prime Minister appeared
03:03to have a message for his CARICOM neighbours.
03:05All energy assets comprising LNG, 10 ammonia plants, 8 methanol plants, are all not operating
03:16at full capacity due to gas constraints.
03:21We also have a mothballed and preserved oil refinery for which bids are currently being
03:26evaluated to conclusion.
03:29These existing international-grade investment structures are available to our CARICOM neighbours
03:36and other partners to monetize their hydrocarbon resources.
03:41The Prime Minister declared the restructuring of the state oil company a success.
03:45As he said to other TPHL subsidiaries, Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd. and Pariof Fuel Trading
03:52have been profitable.
03:54Jule Brown, TV6 News.
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