Trinidad and Tobago’s Cabinet is expected to consider recommendations on restarting the Petrotrin refinery after the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries completed its review of a recently submitted committee report.
Energy Minister Roodal Moonilal gave the update on January 8 during a post-Cabinet press briefing, confirming that the technical assessment phase is complete and the matter is moving toward Cabinet-level decisions.
“At the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, we have subjected that report to our own analysis and study. We have had a thorough analysis of the report and we are now in a position to make recommendations based upon the report. So we expect that we will make recommendations to the Cabinet and to the Honorable Prime Minister very soon,” he said.
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He said any restart would require major work and external financing support.
“The report did indicate that the refinery can be restarted in relatively quick time with a certain quantum of finance capital. The refinery itself requires a significant amount of work, refurbishment and in some cases retooling that has a money price tag on it,” Moonilall added.
Moonilal said interest has already emerged from potential partners. “We have received several expressions of interest from local and international entities that would like to participate in the restart of the refinery.”
He stressed that the Government intends to follow a different path from previous attempts to revive the facility. “We will not want to repeat the horrible, expensive, scandalous experience…we will not be repeating the errors, neither the violations nor the breach of the law,” he continued.
On August 28, 2018, the closure of the Petrotrin refinery was confirmed after the Trinidad government found its operations to be unsustainable. Petrotrin said that it would shift its focus to exploration and production activities. The closure of the refinery cost 2,600 workers their jobs.
