Patriotic, Cabinet committee have 'productive meeting'

THE ENERGY Ministry has reported a "productive meeting" between Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd (Patriotic) and a Cabinet committee on the acquisition of the Guaracara Refinery.

The ministry in a release Wednesday reported that a meeting was convened between the preferred bidder, Patriotic, which is wholly-owned by the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU), that company's international advisors, the ministry's evaluation committee and a Cabinet sub-committee comprising three ministers – Stuart Young as Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, Public Utilities Minister Robert Le Hunte and Energy Minister Franklin Khan. The meeting was held at 2 pm at the ministry, Tower C, International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain.

"The (Energy Ministry) is pleased to report that it was a very productive meeting, with the main objective being the restart of the refinery. The next steps are the establishment of dedicated teams on both sides to achieve this mandate as well as a detailed inspection of the assets in the transaction. As we seek to finalise the transaction there would be continued dialogue between all parties with a view to achieving restart of the refinery within the earliest possible time frame which would redound to the benefit of the citizens of TT."

The refinery became available for sale following the closure of refining operations at State-owned oil company Petrotrin on November 30, 2018. Last September, Patriotic's US$700 million won the bid for the 102-year-old Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, and in October, it submitted the details of its plan reopen the refinery. The company hopes to restart operations within 12 months.