Patriotic: Refinery to be 'gas station on the sea'

GENERAL secretary of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Richard Lee said its intention is to create a “gas station on the sea” and reduce the carbon footprint when Patriotic Technologies and Energies Co Ltd acquires the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

Government has given Patriotic until the end of October to sign off on the deal or lose it.

At the union’s post-budget forum held in collaboration with the Co-operative Credit Union League (CCULTT) on Tuesday, Lee, one of the directors, was optimistic about the acquisition.

Panellists included economists Dr Indera Sagewan, Hayden Blades, David Abdulah, United Farmers Association president Shiraz Khan, Shenice Webb and Marlon Pierre of the CCULTT.

Reacting to the ultimatum from Finance Minister Colm Imbert as he presented the 2020/2021 budget on Monday, Lee said the company has done everything it was required to do. He said it is up to the government and technical team from the TT Petroleum Holding Company to get serious and close the process.

He said the country was in a state of turmoil, with workers on the breadline, unattractive gas prices causing the shutdown of user plants, the retirement age being reviewed upwards, freezing public sector employment, implementation of the property tax, removal of tax concessions on private vehicles, the sale of service stations and freeing up of gas prices.

So Patriotic, with the promise of 4,500 jobs, was one of the saving graces for TT. He said not only will jobs be created and workers pay taxes to the State, it will be a major foreign-exchange earner as well.

Lee said TT’s geographical proximity to the Panama Canal and the passage of international vessels give it this impetus.

“We can become the ‘gas station on the sea,’ where we can sell bunker fuel directly and pay for it in US dollars.”

He explained in 2014, under the Kamla Persad-Bissessar People’s Partnership government, when this was done, “Petrotrin used to make US$42 million in foreign exchange every month from bunker fuel sale.”

That can be done again, said Lee, as he pointed to plans not only to increase productivity when the refinery is restarted, but to reduce the carbon footprint.

“When we start up the plant, it will have no waste. We will recycle all the emissions that come out of the refinery and recycle it back into the refining process.”