PM: A&V Oil case a matter for Petrotrin board, not me

THE Prime Minister says he does not know if now-defunct state-owned oil refinery Petrotrin has appealed the arbitration panel's recent decision involving "fake oil" claims against operator A&V Oil.

In early June, A&V Oil won its arbitration case against Petrotrin. It stands to recover millions in payment for outstanding bills.

In Parliament on Friday, Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein asked Rowley for a status update on the advice given to Petrotrin to set aside the findings of the arbitrators which exonerated A&V Oil.

Rowley said the matter was "entirely within the ambit of the board of Petrotrin," so he cannot say whether the application was filed.

He said he was aware the board got advice from "a number of legal luminaries and will take the appropriate action in the public interest."

Hosein pressed Rowley on the deadline to submit such an application.

Rowley reiterated, "That is a matter for the board of Petrotrin and if the board of Petrotrin is seeking advice, I'm sure the advice of one senior counsel is an advice, but there may be other advice and there may be deadlines to be met, but the entire matter is a matter for the board to meet its deadline and take the advice it gets from its legal service."

Hosein asked if the Prime Minister was satisfied that Petrotrin's board was "moving with alacrity."

Rowley replied, "The protection of $1 billion is not the issue. The issue is that Petrotrin has lost the matter and an appeal is being considered. And the board of Petrotrin will determine, based on the legal advice, whether or not the appeal should be pursued or whether it should seek to do otherwise.

"That is not an issue for the Prime Minister and my satisfaction is not an issue in this matter."

He added, "And if you are so concerned, you should be concerned that your colleague from Siparia has put us all in this situation."

Petrotrin terminated its contract with A&V to explore and extract crude oil from the Catshill Field, Barrackpore for sale to Petrotrin, following the finding of an internal audit report. The matter was first made public in 2017 by Opposition Leader and Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar.

An investigation was launched after she alleged on a political platform that A&V had overstated its production of oil and was getting away with fraud and misconduct because its owner, Nazim Baksh, was Rowley's friend and a PNM party financier.

Hosein asked if Cabinet requested a report from Petrotrin's board about the situation.

Rowley said, "This is not a matter for the Cabinet and the Cabinet has requested no such report."

Newsday understands that no appeal has yet been filed in the matter.

At the Opposition's media briefing on Sunday, UNC Senator Jayanti Lutchmedia said the Opposition will not take any responsibility for the A&V drilling chaos.

She said Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar was not involved in terminating its contract and as such has nothing to answer for.

“That was done some three months after by the PNM-appointed Petrotrin board. They also didn't even act on the information that Persad-Bissessar put into the public domain.

"They commissioned independent audit reports by international firms which released the same details Persad-Bissessar brought before which stated that the wells that have been drilling in the Catshill Field were not capable of producing high volumes that A&V had been claiming for. In this context, the PNM Petrotrin board terminated the contract."

She said the UNC was now concerned as to what will happen next. “We have to stop and consider what would be the impact on the financial stability of the Petrotrin. We are now being told that Petrotrin is seeking advice from other legal luminaries. I want the Prime Minister and the board of Petrotrin to say who are the legal luminaries and why do they feel that it is necessary to seek advice from sources other than the attorney that they hired to deal with this matter on their behalf,” Lutchmedial said.

She further called on the Government to make the advice public and say how much time they need to get this advice. She also questioned whether the Government had approved any payments to A&V in the meantime.