KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
As Patriotic Energies and Technologies Limited engages the government in another round of negotiation for the acquisition of the Petrotrin refinery, the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) says Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar committed treachery by misleading the people.
OWTU president general Ancel Roget said yesterday they would contemplate schooling Persad-Bissessar on refinery operations following her controversial commentary on the acquisition process during the United National Congress (UNC) virtual meeting Monday.
He said Persad-Bissessar is doing all she can to prevent Patriotic from acquiring the refinery, port and terminal assets, which would benefit the small man on the street.
"I want to proffer here this afternoon, respectfully, that the honourable Leader of the Opposition had one thing and one thing on her mind - that was to cause great injury and harm, I dare say, and attempt to deal a fatal blow to the acquisition process and to ensure that process does not see the light of day," Roget said.
The OWTU called yesterday's media conference at its Paramount Building headquarters in San Fernando to clarify three issues Persad-Bissessar raised: the inclusion of Paria in the acquisition of the refinery, Patriotic's partnership with international petroleum trader Trafigura PTE and the price of the refinery.
When the government shutdown Petrotrin in 2018, it placed the refinery into Garacara and the storage and port assets into Paria; two recently incorporated companies. On Monday, Persad-Bissessar said that the government was not only selling Garacara but Paria as well, although it made no mention that it would sell the latter. She recalled that in March 2019, former Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet said Paria was on offer, and the company advertised an RFP for its sale. Two days later, Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Franklin Khan said it was an error and ordered a retraction. She also recalled that days later, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said that the government was yet to decide on the sale of Paria.
However, during that post Cabinet media briefing, Rowley clarified that while the government did not decide at the time, Paria was part of the restructuring of Petrotrin.
"If the restructuring is going to be a restart-up of the refinery and it involves any input for Paria, we would be crazy to have the refinery die when it could live because of Paria,” Rowley said.
Roget said that with his knowledge of refinery operations, a refinery, storage and port facilities go hand in hand for a successful process. He said when Shell and Texaco operated Trinidad's oil industry, they knew this and built the necessary infrastructure.
"In our response to the RFP and to put in a bid, it had to have been for refinery and port facilities for it to make any sense. More than that, for it to make any economical and operational sense for it to benefit the company and for it to benefit Trinidad & Tobago. Therefore, it is a matter of public record that we would have placed a bid for the refinery and the port,' Roget said. He said the UNC was in the Parliament and the Hansard contains the information that the Patriotic submitted a big for the port and refining assets.
"It is a grave injustice, indeed it is an act of treachery for someone who has the knowledge to the contrary to pedal to those who they think do not know this information because it is public knowledge, it was announced in the Parliament. The honourable Leader of the Opposition was present when it was announced. Check the Hansard."
Regarding the price, Persad-Bissessar noted that Patriotic initially ordered US$700 million for the refinery and US$300 million for non-core assets while there was no price for Paria. She said Patriotic now wants to pay $US526 million for the refinery: $US500 in advance and wants the government to foot a US$26 million bill for other fees.
But Roget said Persad-Bissessar needed to understand Net Present Value, especially as the assets were out of commission for almost two years. He said that instead of the initial arrangement of paying over 13 years (A three-year moratorium and seven years of payments), there is an offer of upfront payment on the table.
"I think we should school the Honourable Opposition Leader and members of the Opposition on refinery operations. You cannot take off a refinery, some 23 plants, leave it off for two years and start it up just like that. It takes a lot of capital."
Roget said a refinery needs a viable market and feedstock for sustainability. He said the Opposition could not expect the Patriotic to pay more, especially in a COVID-19 period when commodity prices are down.
He also responded to Persad-Bissessar's assertion that Trafigura PTE was a troubled company. Persad-Bissessar said the company is subjected to investigations relating to corruption, market manipulation.
However, Roget read from a T&T Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report. It stated that the Trafigura Group, a leading energy commodity trader started to publicly disclose what it paid to State-owned Enterprises such as Petrotrin and the National Gas Company (NGC) for their cargoes.
In 2014, it paid Petrotrin US$80.7 million for refined products and US$105.5 million to NGC for gas. While the reports give the figures for 2014 to 2017, Roget focused on 2014 as he said the People's Partnership was in power and Persad-Bissessar, as then prime minister or her energy minister ought to know that Trafigura PTE was a significant revenue stream for the country.
Roget said Trafigura PTE, like many other multinational companies (MNC), would run into problems in the countries it operates. He said there are issues with many other MNCs in Trinidad as they tend to seek out the most they can get from a country.
Patriotic met with an evaluation committee convened by Rowley yesterday to present clarification on several issues raised during a previous meeting on last Friday. Roget said that given the composition of this committee, he is confident Patriotic can settle the negotiation and can restart the refinery soon.