Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet says there is no plan to decommission the Petrotrin refinery when it ceases operations. Instead, the plant will be mothballed and preserved in a way that it can be easily restarted if someone wants to buy it. The refinery is due to cease operations by the end of this month, one month ahead of the November 30 planned closure of the company.
Speaking to Guardian Media this evening, Espinet said, “There is no plan today, as we speak, to decommission the refinery. The refinery is being shut down and mothballed so that if somebody wants it, it will be there.”
Espinet said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley made it clear that “if somebody wants the refinery there would be a period they would look and see if somebody wants the refinery and somebody may want it, so the plant would be mothballed.”
On Wednesday, Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar called on the Environmental Management Authority to indicate whether or not a Certificate of Environmental Clearance (CEC) had been granted for the decommissioning and/or closure of the Refinery. In a letter to EMA chairman Nadra Nathai-Gyan, she warned that without satisfying the legal requirements of the EMA, the closure of the refinery can have “catastrophic and cataclysmic effects on the environment which will last well into the future.”
But Espinet yesterday said there was no need for a CEC because “we shutting down the plant and it will be mothballed, how that reach decommissioning? The short answer is we not decommissioning the plant.”
One industry expert explained that mothballing is where the plant is basically stored in such a way "that when you come back to it, it is not a heap of rust and it can start."
In mothballing, he said, "You may not remove all of the hydrocarbons et cetera, but you will fill up engines with oil or anything to stop rust, corrosion and degradation so you are preserving it knowing that in future you want to start again."
Decommissioning, the expert said, means you have no intention to use the plant again and all the hydrocarbons, gases and flammable material will be removed.
Espinet said the refinery will stop production somewhere between the middle and the end of this month.
“It takes some time for it to shut down, it’s not a light switch. There are a number of plants to be shut down, it will be done systematically one after the next. Then they will have to bleed them of all the things they are doing, then clean them out and fill them with some kind of chemical to keep it mothballed in good condition.”
He said in the transition period there would be a “safe shutdown of the plant and the plant would be put into a safe and clean system so that it will be isolated from its running.”
But Espinet could not say how long the plant would remain mothballed, noting that is dependent on the “final decisions made on the plant. That would be dependent on proposals and I imagine the shareholders will make the determination.”
He also said despite the so-called “mother of all marches” being staged by the Oilfield Workers' Trade Union from San Fernando to Port-of-Spain, Petrotrin was still operating as normal.
"People are working and everything is running, the plant is running,” Espinet said.
Espinet said it appeared that the “union is not in sync with the people, I am sorry to say they are on their own agenda.” As of yesterday, there had been no discussion on the termination packages because Espinet said the union had made it “abundantly clear” that they are not discussing the matter.
The OWTU, which represents the majority of the workers, is seeking an injunction from the Industrial Court to try to stop the planned closure of the oil company.
As it now stands, Espinet said the company continues to work towards the November 30 date for the company to cease operations.