Three months after the Government said that the Paria Fuel Trading Company was not for sale, it is considering lumping in the eight-month-old company as part of the Guaracara Refining Company Ltd (GRCL) deal.
Speaking at the People’s National Movement meeting in Point Fortin on Thursday night, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that Paria, which was born out of Petrotrin’s closure last November, was created to handle the supply of fuel for the domestic market.
However, he said that the company, which is mostly a tank farm, is closely linked to the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery. The refinery had been mothballed and transferred into the custody of GRCL. Energy and Energy Industries Minister Franklin Khan announced at the meeting that GRCL will most likely be leased to an international company.
Khan said the bids for the refinery’s acquisition were being evaluated and Rowley said that by August, Cabinet expects to be presented with the best offer.
“But Paria and the refinery are connected and when we do the analysis from the proposals, I said this before and I will say it again, I will be surprised if anybody proposes anything to that refinery and is prepared to invest money in that refinery and leave the Government with Paria to compete by importing finished product into Trinidad and Tobago. We have to wait to see what the refinery proposal is because Paria is simply the trading of the finished product from the refinery or the importation into the refinery.
“It is the same storage tanks they have to use. If you have Paria as a separate company importing fuel, where are the tanks going to come from for the company that will be running the refinery? When the refinery produces diesel and gas, where are they going to put it? In Wade Mark’s pocket?” Rowley said.
Defending the decision to close down Petrotrin and terminate the employment of over 4,700 workers, Rowley said the Government had to take the tough decision to save the treasury from being depleted. Had Petrotrin been allowed to continue, he said it would have defaulted on its loans and would have resulted in the country being downgraded by international rating agencies. This would have made borrowing difficult for the Government as the country would be subjected to high-interest rates from creditors.
Rowley maintained that Petrotrin was not closed down but was restructured and the new entity was doing well. He said the latest rating from Standards and Poors saw an upgrade from a negative rating to stable. He said Heritage Petroleum now has a BB rating, which is just two notches below investment rate. He is confident that as oil production continues, the company will attain an investment rating that will allow it to borrow with ease. He said that it does not matter who owned the refinery as the operations will result in taxes being paid to the Government. He said for years, Petrotrin had not paid any taxes.