Clear air on Guaracara refinery

THE president of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU), Ancel Roget, is calling Government to clear the air on the acquisition of the Guaracara refinery.

Roget called an “emergency” press meeting at the OWTU office, Circular Road, San Fernando, yesterday to say he had been bombarded with calls since a recent statement by Energy Minister Franklin Khan. Khan, he said, used a public platform in Point Fortin to alert the country to his knowledge of the outcome of a process that had not been completed as yet.

Speaking at the PNM’s public meeting in Point Fortin on Thursday night, Khan said the Guaracara refinery and facilities were likely to be leased to an international operator because there was no “indigenous capacity to run a refinery of that size and complexity.”

Yesterday Roget said, “We find this to be very troubling.”

After the closure of Petrotrin, the OWTU incorporated a company by the name of Patriotic Energy, he said, so as to get involved in the bidding process for the refinery and all of the other assets at Pointe-a-Pierre.

“The aim is to provide fuel energy security and also revenue in the form of foreign exchange for TT,” he said.

At this point, he said, the OWTU is bound by a non-disclosure agreement and will not be able to speak openly about the issue, but the minister had breached that contract.

Roget said the minister’s utterances clearly showed that he had a preference for one or the other bidders in the process and claimed some foreign operator was being favoured.

“It is another, parallel process that the minister is engaged in and he knows the outcome already. We want to know if this process is a fair one,” Roget said.

He said the Prime Minister also spoke at that meeting but did not comment on the issue and claimed that indicated Dr Rowley was in agreement with Khan.