Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal ex­pects to re­ceive the re­port on restart­ing the Guaracara re­fin­ery with­in the com­ing days, as plans move for­ward to re­open the fa­cil­i­ty, which has been closed for sev­en years.

Speak­ing at his Oropouche East Con­stituen­cy Of­fice in Debe yes­ter­day, where Christ­mas grants were dis­trib­uted to nine pri­ma­ry schools, Mooni­lal said he was ex­cit­ed about re­ceiv­ing the re­port from the start-up com­mit­tee ei­ther at the end of No­vem­ber or in the first few days of De­cem­ber.

He said, “We an­tic­i­pate that that re­port will be com­pre­hen­sive, and it will give us an im­por­tant map as to how we move for­ward, giv­en that they in­tend to sub­mit be­cause there is a terms of ref­er­ence, and if they stick to the terms of ref­er­ence, we ex­pect to have a tech­ni­cal as­sess­ment. We ex­pect to have some type of fi­nan­cial and com­mer­cial dis­cus­sion on the way for­ward to the re­fin­ery.”

Not­ing that the re­fin­ery’s restart was a cam­paign promise by the UNC, Mooni­lal added, “If in the next few days we have some good news as to the way for­ward for the Guaracara re­fin­ery, we will be very hap­py about that, be­cause that will tell us how we go for­ward in terms of pro­pos­als, op­tions, part­ner­ships, and so on that we in­tend to take. I am very ex­cit­ed to get that re­port and share it with the Ho­n­ourable Prime Min­is­ter and Cab­i­net col­leagues so that, col­lec­tive­ly, we can make a de­ci­sion as we go for­ward.”

Ac­cord­ing to a “su­per­fi­cial as­sess­ment” by ex­pe­ri­enced in­dus­try pro­fes­sion­als, he said, some prod­ucts could be pro­duced with­in 12 to 18 months, with full op­er­a­tions pos­si­ble in about 36 months.

Mooni­lal, how­ev­er, said the time­line would de­pend on “some kind of cap­i­tal ex­pen­di­ture and fi­nan­cial out­look,” which he ex­pects the re­port would ad­dress in de­tail.

The min­is­ter al­so con­firmed that he has ac­cept­ed an in­vi­ta­tion from the Guyana Min­is­ter of Nat­ur­al Re­sources, Vick­ram Bharat, to at­tend an en­er­gy con­fer­ence in Guyana in Feb­ru­ary.

He said the event would pro­vide an op­por­tu­ni­ty to dis­cuss in de­tail some of T&T’s col­lab­o­ra­tions and plans with the Co-op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana, which the for­mer ad­min­is­tra­tion did not pur­sue, de­spite the rapid growth the oil and gas in­dus­try has ex­pe­ri­enced and is ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue in Guyana in the com­ing months and years.