Young: Fake documents submitted in refinery bid

ENERGY Minister Stuart Young has said an entity that previously bid for the former Petrotrin refinery submitted a false document which prevented its bid from going forward.

He made this comment during his contribution to the 2024/2025 budget debate in the House of Representatives on October 4.

During the sitting, Young and Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar expressed different views about government's continued efforts to either sell or lease the refinery.

They did so in their respective contributions to the 2024/2025 budget debate in the House of Representatives on October 4.

In his budget presentation in the House on September 30, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said three companies had been shortlisted with respect to their proposals for either sale or lease of the refinery.

They are locally based CRO Consortium, US-based INCA Energy LLC and Nigeria-based Oando PLC.

Imbert said, "A formal selective Request for Proposals process will now be initiated to determine the winner amongst these three companies, with a view to restarting the refinery, if found feasible."

He added, "It must be stressed that in this process, the government has no intention of exposing taxpayers to the recurring billion-dollar losses that occurred previously in the operation of the refinery and the success of this venture is predicated on the principle that it be at no cost to the taxpayer."

Imbert said companies that submitted proposals for the refinery had their proposals evaluated based on certain criteria.

These included having a track record of refinery ownership and/or operation, outlining a reasonable restart plan and timeline and outlining an arrangement with Paria Fuel Trading Company that did not prejudice the national interest of fuel security as well as the handling of Heritage Petroleum’s crude supply.

Heritage and Paria are two subsidiary companies formed under Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd (TPHL), which was formed after Petrotrin was restructured in November 2018.

Young agreed with the position outlined by Imbert.

He said, "Any responsible government would want to restart the refinery."

Young said, unlike the UNC, the PNM will not place taxpayers "in a position where they are incurring billions of dollars in losses as a result of restarting the refinery.

"Whilst the government may participate, maybe in a minority position, is not going to put the taxpayers to carry that load."

Young said when invitations were first made in 2018-2019 for the sale or lease of the refinery, the Oilfield Workers Trade Union's (OWTU) formed company Patriotic Energy was the preferred bidder.

"We gave them a period of exclusivity. They could not unfortunately get over the hurdle, even though we worked with them."

Young said the OWTU wanted "exclusivity to the Paria tank farms etc, we weren't prepared to do that.

"The second (thing) is they wanted the government to issue bonds on their behalf as part of the financing.

"That is putting the taxpayers right back where we had taken them out from."

A second period of exclusivity, he continued, was offered to Patriotic but no agreement was reached.

Young said there continued to be expressions of interest for the refinery, with Patriotic being one of them.

He lamented claims made by OWTU president-general Ancel Roget at a news conference in Barataria on October 3 about the refinery being treated as a political football and Patriotic was best suited to run the refinery.

Young said, "One of the things we looked at. Not us, the government. The evaluation committee and Scotia out of Houston are independent experts in this area. There are a number of things you look at."

These included experience in refining and the financial ability to manage and operate a refinery.

Young dismissed Roget's claim that Patriotic's bid for the refinery was unsuccessful because of alleged vindictiveness by government.

He said, "Lo and behold, you know things arrive in your mailbox."

Young said he was informed by the evaluation committee that Patriotic did not meet the requirements to show it had the financial capability to manage and run the refinery in its first bid.

He said the committee gave Patriotic another opportunity to show it did have this capability.

"Lo and behold, as part of that second opportunity, is a document that I have in my hand here today."

That document, Young continued, appears to be a "swift message of a cash wire transfer of US$1.5 billion on behalf of Patriotic Energies and Technology Ltd."

He said the document appears to show this money was received at a local bank.

Young said the committee was asked if this information was correct and if it was, why was Patriotic's second bid for the refinery unsuccessful.

He said the committee said the document was fraudulent.

"When the due diligence was done, of course, no US$1.5 billion was received by Patriotic at any local bank."

Young said the document was stamped by an unknown person.

"It is easy to verify this. It is either that it exists or it doesn't exist and I can here without fear of contradiction. Here and outside as I might do later on and say it is not a real document."

The PNM was scheduled to hold a post-budget meeting in Belmont later in the evening, with the Prime Minister as the featured speaker. Belmont is located in the Port of Spain North/St Ann's West constituency, which Young represents.

He said, "Unfortunately. They could not move forward because the document that was produced as proof of financials is not real."

"Fake, fraud, fraudulent. That is the truth of why Patriotic couldn't make it to the next hurdle."

In her earlier contribution, Persad-Bissessar promised a future UNC government would "appoint a task force of industry experts to report to the Cabinet within 90 days on a roadmap to restart the refinery."

She claimed two of the companies mentioned as potential bidders for the refinery had no track record of owning or managing oil refineries.

In reference to the February 25, 2022, Paria diving tragedy, Persad-Bissessar also promised the UNC would amend the law to create an offence of corporate manslaughter.

On that day, Land Marine Construction Services (LMCS) divers Rishi Nagassar, Kazim Ali Jnr, Fyzal Kurban, Yusuf Henry and Christopher Boodram were doing maintenance work on a 30-inch underwater pipeline belonging to Paria when they were sucked into it.

Only Boodram survived.

In its report, the Paria Commission of Enquiry (CoE) said there was not a strong enough case to prosecute any individual, but the law allowed for a corporation to be charged with manslaughter.

The CoE recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) charge Paria with corporate manslaughter.

In a statement on July 30, DPP Roger Gaspard, SC, said he considered the CoE report.

He asked Commissioner of Police Erla Harewood-Christopher to initiate criminal investigations to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to charge any person or entity with manslaughter by gross negligence over the Paria tragedy.

The DPP's statement added that Harewood-Christopher told him she had appointed an officer to lead the investigation.

To date, there has been no indication that this investigation has been completed or its outcome.