PM wants to see refinery in local hands

THE Prime Minister has said he would like to see the Guaracara refinery restarted and run by locals.

However, he gave no commitment on Tuesday morning in response to a question as to whether Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd, had satisfied government’s requirement to take possession of the refinery, which has been out of action for the past two years.

Rowley, a guest on the Morning Brew on CNC3 on Tuesday, said he was yet to see the proposal from Patriotic, a fully owned subsidiary of the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU).

Rowley reconstituted the evaluation committee to further comment or give recommendations on the proposal days after Energy Minister Franklin Khan initially rejected what Patriotic had submitted on October 31.

Rowley told host Natalee Legore government was open to the union’s decision to get involved, but with a proviso that its proposal would be subjected to and meet the rigours of robust examination.

“Because it is a business. A refinery is not a chemistry set. A refinery is a multi-billion-dollar activity, enterprise, funding, so it has to be dealt with as a business proposal.

“I don’t know what the proposal is. I haven’t seen it as yet. They (Patriotic) were given an extension.”

Rowley said the report will not come to him immediately but would go to the Cabinet, in keeping with the process.

“I am hoping there is something there that we would like to work with, because I too would like to see the refinery started and in the hands of local people.

“If there is no workable and no useable arrangement in that proviso, then we might have to go out.

"I can’t tell you whether they will get it. It is not mine to give, contrary to what the town crier is saying. It is a process the government is going through.

“We went out there and asked the world if there is anybody out there who would like to use it, and if there is nobody, then it would be their own."