Committee established to evaluate refinery bids

GOVERNMENT has appointed a ten-member committee to evaluate the bids for the sale or lease of the former Petrotrin refinery at Pointe a Pierre. The refinery was shuttered last November.

TPHL is the parent company of Guaracara Refining Co Ltd, the holding company created to manage the refinery assets. In a release today, Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd said the evaluation committee will be led by Ministry of Finance permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance Vishnu Dhanpaul and will evaluate all bidders participating in the Guaracara RFP (including bidders in Stage 1 and Stage 2).

The committee will make a recommendation to the Cabinet on the preferred bidder. Government has said that it hopes to have an operator by the end of the year.

The appointment of the Committee will remove any requirement for TPHL’s board of directors to conduct the evaluation and selection, since the committee will assume full responsibility for the selection of the preferred bidder, the release said. Consequently, the Government has indemnified the board from any liability that may stem from the decisions and/or actions of the committee, it added.

Members of the evaluation committee are: Vishnu Dhanpaul, chairman; Anthony Chan Tack; Claire Gomez-Miller; Joseph Remy; Ian Welsh; Selwyn Lashley; Dale McLeod; Sandra Fraser; Sahid Hosein; and Terrance Bharath.