CoP: Arbitration ruling on A&V Oil scandal won't affect police enquiry

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith says the findings of an arbitration committee in favour of A&V Oil in its matter with the now-defunct Petrotrin, over fake oil allegations, will not affect an ongoing police investigation which he said is nearing closure.

In 2017, on a political platform, the Opposition leader alleged that a lease operator contracted by Petrotrin to supply its Pointe-a-Pierre refinery with crude oil, had defrauded the company of almost TT$100 million by inflating its oil production figures.

A&V Oil defended the matter both in the courts and at arbitration, emerging victorious in the latter last week.

Responding to questions during a media briefing on Monday, Griffith said, "Just yesterday I received an updated report and what we are looking for now, we are coming to a close in the investigation, we are looking for an independent reservoir engineering expert that is going to assist us to ascertain certain things and also a forensic investigation will take place and that is to validate the legitimacy of crude quantities and so forth.

"We are now doing letters of engagement through the legal department to acquire these people to assist us and after the contracting of these experts we will be able to complete our investigation with the findings to assist us and to ascertain where we go from there."

In the unanimous decision, the three arbiters held that Petrotrin failed to establish A&V engaged in seal tampering or any inappropriate practises in the process of delivering crude oil and was entitled to payment.

They also held that Petrotrin did not have reasonable grounds for suspecting that A&V misconducted itself and was entitled to compensation for the wrongful termination of the agreement.

Petrotrin's counter-claim was also dismissed by the three arbiters who held that the company did not have reasonable grounds for suspecting A&V engaged in fraudulent activity.