Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Dri­vers be­gan stock­ing up on fu­el yes­ter­day even as state-owned Petrotrin is­sued a re­lease as­sur­ing that con­tin­gency plans are in place to en­sure a "un­in­ter­rupt­ed sup­ply" of gas on the lo­cal mar­ket. Long lines were seen at sev­er­al gas sta­tions as dri­vers sought to fill up in an­tic­i­pa­tion of threat­ened in­dus­tri­al ac­tion by?Petrotrin em­ploy­ees.

The re­lease stat­ed: "Arrange­ments are in place to en­sure a con­tin­ued sup­ply of prod­ucts to the lo­cal mar­ket." On Sat­ur­day, Petrotrin's Ma­rine Di­vi­sion and the fill­ing bond in Pointe-a-Pierre were shut down as em­ploy­ees downed tools over unan­swered ques­tions about a new fu­el bunker­ing sub­sidiary, Bunkers Oil of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The re­lease said sev­er­al em­ploy­ees failed to re­port for du­ty at the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery last Fri­day and Sat­ur­day and this ac­tion forced the com­pa­ny to re­duce some its op­er­a­tions.