Energy Minister: Ten bids for Pointe-a-Pierre refinery

ENERGY Minister Stuart Young says Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd has received ten proposals for the former Petrotrin refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre.

He was speaking to the media during a tour of the National Energy Skills Centre's drilling academy in Ste Madeleine on August 6.

Young said the request for proposal (RFP) process for the refinery closed on July 31.

"So right now, the evaluation committee that is chaired by former permanent secretary, now high commissioner from Trinidad and Tobago to UK, Vishnu Dhanpaul, they are busy working at it and looking at what has come forward.

"I look forward to getting the results from them and their recommendations in the next few weeks."

Asked about the number of bids for the refinery, he replied, "I don't want to speculate on that. It was a decent number of bids around ten. Just above ten."

Young repeated that he was awaiting official word from the committee after it evaluates the bids it has received.

He did not indicate the names or nationalities of any of the bidders.

Young was asked if there is a possibility of a restarted refinery processing crude oil from Guyana and if talks had been held with the Guyanese government about this.

He said, "The government of Trinidad and Tobago has been engaged with the government of Guyana. The Prime Minister has gone to Guyana for their last two energy conferences. Himself and myself have participated in high-level conversations with the President and vice president of Guyana."

Young did not disclose the details of those conversations.

But he said, "Obviously, those are things that you will look at, because there must be a supply of crude (oil). But at the end of the day let's see what the proposals that have come forward are, because the government is not taking a shareholder interest in this thing. So let's see what the proposals come forward with."

Young added that one proposal that should come from all the bidders is "that they will have sources of crude, etc."

His comments come three days after Dr Rowley slammed the Opposition UNC and others over Naveen Jindal, chairman of India's Jindal Power and Steel Ltd, declining to make a formal proposal.

Rowley did so as he read a letter from Jindal at the PNM's Diego Martin West 51st constituency conference on August 3.

He repeated that Jindal never made a formal proposal for the refinery when he visited TT in June.

But Rowley said there had been a possibility of Jindal's company proposing a US$700 million investment that could upgrade technology at the refinery to facilitate a possible restart.