Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said that the sus­pi­cions raised in Par­lia­ment by Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal against the Oil­fields Work­ers Trade Union (OW­TU) fi­nanciers to take over the re­fin­ery may top­ple the en­tire deal.

He said that Mooni­lal rais­ing ques­tions about who would ben­e­fit from the sale of the re­fin­ery and ques­tions about whether the Prime Min­is­ter was in­volved in some un­der­hand­ed bid to sell off the re­fin­ery for pri­vate prof­it would hurt the OW­TU's chance of se­cur­ing a loan.

"He has prej­u­diced the OW­TU's abil­i­ty to deal with bankers and right now, I am not sure what the out­come is go­ing to be," he said.

He likened Mooni­lal's state­ments to the neg­a­tive re­ports that jeop­ar­dised and even­tu­al­ly broke the San­dals deal that the PNM was work­ing out for To­ba­go.

"Of course he has the gall to tell the Gov­ern­ment that we must leave the prob­lem of the re­fin­ery un­til af­ter the elec­tion," he said.

"What is the ra­tio­nale be­hind leav­ing it? I know he has a big pock­et, but I don't think he could thief that," Row­ley said.

He said as Prime Min­is­ter, he did not hold any grudges against the OW­TU.

"The best bid won and the OW­TU was the best bid and we are quite pre­pared to do what we have to do to get it done and get the re­fin­ery restart­ed," he said.

"The same way they chase away the San­dals project... is the same way they are try­ing to un­der­mine the OW­TU," he said.