Petrotrin workers back on the job, but mad rush for gas continues

Even though Petrotrin workers began returning to work yesterday, Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) president general Ancel Roget is warning there will be no industrial peace until their issues are properly resolved. In a telephone interview yesterday, Roget said there would only be “partial restoration of normalcy” at the energy company.

Whether operations return to full capacity, he said, would depend on the outcome of a meeting the union has with Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine at his Port-of-Spain office today. “Unless the issues are resolved properly and completely there shall be no industrial peace and therefore no stability in the operations and those things are absolutely necessary for Petrotrin to go forward,” Roget said.

“The minister and board of directors if they are interested in Petrotrin they should come clean and remove Petrotrin from the corrupt hands that they are poised to go into.” In a release yesterday, Petrotrin said its exploration and production operations were almost back to normal and at Pointe-a-Pierre, efforts were being made to restart some of the plants at the refinery and products were being distributed from the bond.

OWTU is calling on the Government to rescind its decision to grant a licence to a local operative of Bunkers International to run a major bunkering facility in T&T. Meanwhile, there was a mad rush for gas yesterday, resulting in several gas pumps in south and central Trinidad running dry. Checks with gas stations in San Fernando, California, Couva, Marabella, Mayaro, Rio Claro, Fyzabad and Point Fortin revealed that several of them had no gas. Signs were posted up and at least one station was cordoned off with caution tape.

However, the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (NP) yesterday issued a statement urging the public not to panic, assuring that there was no supply disruption. It said fuel deliveries had been made to service stations in north and along the East-West Corridor from its Sea Lots compound.