Reports that the Paria Fuel Trading Company (PFTC) has been sold to Simpson Oil Ltd of Barbados have been denied by Communications Minister Stuart Young.
Social media was abuzz yesterday after an image stating “Breaking News” with the PFTC logo in the background emerged. The contents of the post claimed: “Despite all official denials to the contrary, information received this morning confirms that in fact, Paria Fuel Trading Company has been sold to Simpson Oil Limited (SOL) of Barbados, owned by Sir Kiffin Simpson, who is a close friend and golfing buddy of Prime Minister Keith Rowley. Trinidad & Tobago has been lied to and betrayed yet again by this PNM administration.”
The origin of the post was not clear but it was shared by the Braveboy Report, a page operated by UNC activist Marcia Braveboy. The post stated that after shutting down Petrotrin and borrowing $1.4 billion to run its newly-formed replacement, the company was being sold to SOL.
“Wilfred Espinet, you would recall, is a Barbadian. Espinet had formally advertised for the sale of Paria, with the Government denying that Paria is for sale,” the Braveboy Report stated.
But in a response to the claim yesterday, Young said the image and the associated information were completely false.
“There is no truth to the information whatsoever. This is another desperate attempt by the UNC to mislead the public of Trinidad and Tobago. I can also say that the Hon Prime Minister does not play golf with Mr Simpson and it is really disturbing that the UNC would continue to attack private individuals, such as Mr Simpson, in such dishonest and deliberate manners,” Young said.
In a media release, PFTC’s parent company Trinidad Petroleum Holding Ltd (TPHL) also said the statements circulated on social media that the PFTC had been sold to SOL or any other party was untrue.
TPHL stated that the process for inviting, receiving and assessing proposals for TPHL’s refinery assets is currently in train and to date, TPHL has only sought expressions of interest from potentially interested parties.
Outlining the steps completed thus far, the release stated that on March 11 TPHL issued an overview of the assets and non-disclosure agreements to 58 potentially interested bidders, asking them to indicate their interest. The company is currently at the stage of receiving such expressions of interest and entering into confidentiality agreements with those parties that wish to proceed further. TPHL stated that the process is at a preliminary stage and still ongoing.
“We hope this clarifies any misconceptions and we ask that the process be allowed to take its course,” PFTC said.
The PFTC is one of four entities emerging from the shutdown of Petrotrin last November. Its mandate is to supply fuel to the domestic and Caricom market. But the future of the four-month-old company has been the subject of contention after TPHL chairman Wilfred Espinet announced recently that two Requests For Proposals (RFP) were issued for the refinery and the fuel company. After vowing that the creation of the company was in the country’s best interest last August, Espinet recently said it made no sense for the State to operate a business that supplies fuel to the local and regional market. With criticism mounting, Energy and Energy Industries Minister Franklin Khan said the divestment of the company was not within the current mandate given by the Government. He said the TPHL was directed to withdraw and retract any advertisement of the RFP that “may have been inadvertently issued for the sale” of the company. But a few days later, Rowley said that although the Government had taken no position to sell the State company, its sale will be considered if there is a good bid.
“We have not got the proposals as yet, so why should we close the door on a proposal that we have not seen. I am anxious to see the proposals that we might get because somewhere there might be someone who sees Pointe-a-Pierre as their gold mine,” Rowley said last week.