Former Petrotrin workers wary of Oando’s promise of rehiring 

MANY former Petrotrin workers say the past seven years have been filled with mental anguish, financial instability and crushed hopes. And even as Prime Minister Stuart Young announced that Oando PLC – the Nigerian company that is the preferred bidder for the refinery – will seek to rehire them if operations restart, they still feel no sense of ease.

Petrotrin was shut down in November 2018. The government maintains, though, that it did not “close down” the company and that it was restructured to Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd.
Fast-forward to 2025 – the government chooses Oando for the lease of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery as it looks to restart operations. Young said the company will not bring in foreign workers for the refinery and that the government made a negotiation for former refinery workers to be hired.

Ex-employees speak

Keegan Denny worked at the refinery for 12 years as a senior operator. Being the breadwinner in his family, he was left distraught and anxious.

“The first few months were really difficult. (It felt like) a death because there was mourning, separation and anguish…

“I hoped to retire there. I was building a career, I was going to do my master’s degree in 2020, getting a higher position, moving up,” he said before a sigh.

Just a week prior to the official announcement, he began hearing murmurs that operations would cease.

Struggling to secure a new job, while seeing some colleagues get opportunities at other oil and gas companies, he opted to start an agro-business. But then the covid19 pandemic hit and the business never recovered.

He now works as a production supervisor at a local company in the food and beverage industry.
Asked how he feels about Young and Oando’s promise, he said talks about the refinery always resurface before an election.

“You would always see this cycle of having a preferred bidder and then it falls apart. It’s a recurring theme. It just reaches a point where you don’t want to believe anything.”

But even if it does materialise, he said he does not trust that former workers would be rehired.

“It would be great for us but based on the patterns we’ve seen and the promises we’ve heard…”
Clyde Ramesar had worked there for 28-and-a-half years and left as a senior refinery operator as well. He worked in the vacuum distillation and visbreaker units.

He said while the closure was devastating, he had been shy of 50 and so he soon qualified for pension. He said he also got a workable severance package.

“But that in no way justifies the decision that was made because it destroyed too much, too many lives. Simply put, it made no economic sense and it made even less political sense.”

He chose to retire after the closure but noted many of his colleagues struggled to find jobs and their livelihoods were completely destroyed.

“People lost their houses, people are suffering divorce….About two months ago, I had to field a call for somebody who actually put out on social media that he just so fed up and broken that he felt to end his life. I took it upon myself to provide some support and counselling to the individual.”

He said jobs are already difficult to find and even more so for people with a very specific skill set.

Although he does not think it would happen, he said if he is called upon, he would not come out of retirement as, “There are young people more in need of a job than me.”

He reiterated that he does not believe the rehiring promise.

“Out of necessity, they might engage some people but they will have a level of exploitation.

“Putting myself in Oando’s shoes, if you are giving me the lease to operate the refinery, are you going to leverage me to the point where I have to agree to provide the employment slate that you want of me? I mean, my business comes first, and my business comes first along the lines of the cost of labour has to be number one. It has to be something I need to manage, and the ability to deliver on the project if I am sincerely committed to delivering the project.”

Kalifa Phillip worked for almost 13 years as a clerk at the refinery. She was a temporary worker.
“We suffered then and we are still suffering,” she said.

She soon took up a job at the CEPEP (Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme) as bills started piling up and she was grateful for any opportunity.

“We had to start from scratch with nothing. No assistance at all. We were not considered as employees because we were non-permanent.

“Some non-permanents got a sum of money. I worked for almost 13 years and got nothing at all, which was very unfair. I did not even get an official letter saying the company was going to be closed.”

She now works in the health and fitness industry.

On the possibility of workers being rehired, she said, “We have had a lot of promises in the past. It was promised to Patriotic just before the 2020 elections and I got my hopes crushed. Then again, we heard about them finding bidders and that was quashed…So I'm not really confident that this current preferred bidder will be finalised into an actual lease or sale and the company being reopened.”

“If it happens, we’ll see,” she added.

She said she will never forgive the current government for its actions.

“It's a really strong feeling. Some people brush it off, but not me.”
She said while the workers were just viewed as numbers, the decision affected "real people with real lives.

“There’s no sympathy from people because everyone viewed us as these people who were making loads of money and got humbled…I have stopped talking to people because (they shared that view) too.”

Pessimistic about promise

Charlene Hernandez became a permanent worker at Petrotrin in 2013. She was a clerical worker but often served as a management assistant.

She was brought to tears recalling that time and how life has been since then. She, too, had reached the age for pension, which was $2,400 monthly.

“I was home for like 22 months before I got another job…Everything had just crashed. It was hard.”

She is now at another job where she works 12-hour shifts for minimum wage.

“It’s hard, it’s very hard and I don’t think forgiveness is even in my mind right now, to be honest.”

Asked about Young and Oando’s promise, she said she trusts nothing the government says.

“But I do hope they would consider the ex-Petrotrin employees before anybody else and that may bring back some life to the small businesses in Marabella and Pointe-a-Pierre.”

Richard Bernard worked at Petrotrin, though, not in the refinery, but as a projects control adviser.

He said the former workers felt betrayal, shock, anger and resentment, as well as fear and anxiety.

“Many employees were taken aback by the announcement's abruptness...Because Petrotrin was a state enterprise, workers, particularly those with decades of service, felt deceived not only by the corporation but also by the government.”

He said losing a job is more than losing money – it’s losing a sense of routine, community and identity.

He said although Young is saying workers may be rehired, the company’s website says its next steps include further discussions with the government.

“It is unlikely that a new company will rehire the majority of the former employees of the Petrotrin refinery. However, Oando PLC must hire former employees who possess the practical knowledge of the refinery’s operation.”