OWTU opposed to higher fuel prices

THE Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) on Tuesday condemned recent statements by the Prime Minister which it said hinted that the population may see an increase in gasoline prices.

In condemning those statements, OWTU president-general Ancel Roget called on citizens to join the union at the Greens in Palmiste on Saturday to express their concern about this and other issues.

He also reiterated the union's claim that were former state oil company Petrotrin's Pointe-a-Pierre refinery still operating, Dr Rowley would not be hinting at increasing gasoline prices

At a Conversations with the Prime Minister forum at the Bon Air West Community Centre on March 8, Rowley said the current high prices of oil on the world market would not insulate Trinidad and Tobago, as the country has been importing crude oil to refine it for export.

He said if government removes the fuel ubsidy, premium gasoline would go from $5.75 per litre to $7.58, super gasoline would go from $4.97 to $7.46 per litre, and diesel from $3.71 to $6.58 per litre.

“We will see how much funding we can find to take the pressure off the population, but they cannot be insulated completely. I don’t see the hike in oil prices as opening up volumes, because we are not producing the same levels as before."

Prices were raised in 2012, when premium went to $5.75 per litre; in 2015 when super gasoline went from $2.70 to $3.11 per litre and diesel to $1.72 from $1.50 per litre; in 2016, when super gasoline went to $3.58 per litre and diesel to $2 per litre; and in 2018, when super went from $3.97 to $4.97.

Rowley said between 1997 and the present, governments had spent $38.1 billion on fuel subsidies.

“No one thinks about the cost of fuel when going anywhere in TT. With the price at $100 per barrel, the fuel subsidy levy would be $509 million and the subsidy will be $2.9 billion. If it goes up to $125 per barrel, the estimated subsidy would be $4 billion and the fund would be $600 million. If it goes up to $150 a barrel, government liability would be $4.48 billion."

He reiterated, "We are not producing the volumes of oil to cover the prices to put the subsidy at the pump.”

Rowley also said preserving the subsidy in its current form on LPG, kerosene and diesel would lead to a shortfall of $767 million, which government would have to borrow.

At a news conference at the union's Paramount Building in San Fernando, Roget said the OWTU is radically opposed to any increase in gasoline prices. With TT already suffering the socio-economic effects of the covid19 pandemic, he said any increase in gasoline prices "makes a cocktail for extreme hardship."

He wondered why Rowley was hinting at increasing prices while in Barbados, the conversation is going in the opposite direction.

"Government blunders and makes bad decisions that negatively impact the economy."

Roget reiterated the OWTU's condemnation of the November 2018 closure of Petrotrin. He also repeated the union's questions since 2018 as to who benefited from its closure. If the Petrotrin refinery were in operation, he said, it would have been able to blend local and imported crude oil to make petroleum products (including gasoline) for the domestic market and rule out any thought of higher gasoline prices.