OWTU pushes forPetrotrin refinery

THE Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) said it would not be responding to Energy Minister Franklin Khan’s invitation to submit a proposal for the Guaracara Refining Company.

Khan said on Thursday that Guaracara will handle all of the refining assets of the restructured Petrotrin and government was inviting requests for proposals from interested parties to come up with a business plan either to run or lease the old refinery assets.

OWTU’s chief education and research officer Ozzi Warwick said the union is going full speed ahead with its proposal for a lease-to-own arrangement for the Petrotrin refinery as it now stands, as it was invited to do by the Prime Minister during his national address on September 2.

Warwick said the proposal, in partnership with the Suriname-based private investment company SunStone Equity and the UK-based energy firm MAK England, is sound and one Government cannot reject.

The Trinidad Petroleum Holding Company has been established to oversee the State’s oil sector through four subsidiaries: Petrotrin, the Heritage Petroleum Ltd, Paria Fuel Trading and,Guaracara Refining.

Khan said the assets of the refinery will be put into Guaracara and that is the company for which the government will be seeking “opportunity attention for the refinery” as announced by Rowley.

“When Guaracara Refining Company becomes operational, very shortly, we would be putting out a very broad-based request for from the entire international market. There would also be a data room at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery so interested parties could come and view the data, view the plants and then make a reasonable proposal to the State,” Khan said

On Friday, Warwick said the only offer the union was responding to is the one Rowley made.

He said the union was arranging a meeting with the Wilfred Espinet-led board of Petrotrin to present a proposal.

“The Prime Minister made a public offer, we have accepted and put forward a proposal to his offer. We are holding him to his words.”

He said president general of the union Ancel Roget sent a letter dated October 10 requesting a meeting with the board but there has been no response to date.

Warwick said the ruling of the High Court on Thursday, overturning the injunction granted to the union by the Industrial Court preventing the restructuring plan and termination of all employees, does not change the proposal in any way.

He said that was a shallow victory for Government, as the Court of Appeal has shown the Industrial Court does have the power to grant injunctions, and disproved statements by Espinet that the court has no relevance.

“What they were attempting to do was get a ruling from the Court of Appeal that the Industrial Court don’t have the power to grant injunction on IROs, and that would have been a disaster for industrial relations in this country.

“That is a huge victory for the OWTU, for the trade union movement and for industrial relations in the country.

“Even more relevant is the ruling that the Industrial Court has the power to revoke the termination of the employees, and this makes the IRO (Industrial Relations offence) (hearing), which is set to take place on October 30, 31 and November, so critical,” Warwick said.