Kamla calls for probe

IS STATE-OWNED oil being stolen from Petrotrin oil tanks at Catshill oilfields in Barrackpore? This was asked by Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar at the United National Congress’s Monday Night Forum at St Joseph Secondary School.

She raised the issue on the heels of the fake oil scandal in which a private company was paid for oil never actually supplied to Petrotrin.

“Petrotrin took back that Catshill Field. I am told, and I’m asking tonight whether they found a device from a Petrotrin tank down in the same area connected to the Catshill tank. And that device was for pulling or pumping oil from the Petrotrin tank into guess what – the Catshill tank. Lord knows how long, if that was happening, how long that was happening.”

She sought answers from Petrotrin, but wondered if there was any left, saying, “People are hiring and firing like flies, they are dropping like flies, like rats jumping off a ship.”

Tonight, said Persad-Bissessar, “I’m calling on Petrotrin in the management to tell us whether it is true. I call on the Minister of Energy (Franklin Khan) to tell us whether this device was found.” She lamented that no one can know how long such a scenario, if true, has existed. “So while the audit has confirmed there was fake oil going on down there, that was only for a certain period. The fake oil was a different issue – that the tank was recording more oil than the tank could hold. But this now is another issue, that when you’re supposed to be pulling the oil from the ground, you’re pulling it from a Petrotrin tank and recording it as their own.”

Comments

"Kamla calls for probe"

More in this section