Young: Paria not sold

COMMUNICATIONS Minister Stuart Young said United National Congress (UNC) sources have falsely claimed the Paria Fuel Trading Company had been sold to Simpson Oil Ltd (SOL.)
On the Facebook page of a UNC activist someone made a post resembling an official-looking advertisement with the Paria logo under the headline “Breaking news.”

The post said “despite all official denials to the contrary,” Paria had been sold to the Barbados-based company owned by an alleged golfing friend of the Prime Minister.

However Young flatly denied this in a Facebook post of his own yesterday. “The image and associated information making these claims are completely false,” he said.

Young alleged this was a desperate attempt by the UNC to mislead the public.
“I can also say that the Honourable Prime Minister does not play golf with Mr Kyffin Simpson (of Barbados).

“It is really disturbing that the UNC would continue to attack private individuals, such as Mr Simpson, in such dishonest and deliberate manners.” In a separate statement, Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited (TPHL) confirmed that “Paria has not been sold.” TPHL said the process for inviting, receiving and assessing proposals for its refinery assets is “currently in train.”

To date, TPHL has only sought expressions of interest (EOI) from potentially interested parties. The company explained the steps completed so far include the issuing on March 11 of an overview of the assets and non-disclosure agreements to 58 potentially interested bidders, asking them to indicate their interest.

TPHL is currently at the stage of receiving such EOIs and “entering into confidentiality agreements with those parties that wish to proceed further.” The company said this process is at a preliminary stage and still ongoing