PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – The Trinidad and Tobago government has shortlisted three bidders for the takeover of the state-owned oil refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, on the west coast of Trinidad, Finance Minister Colm Imbert has announced.

In 2018, the government shut down the oil refinery insisting that it was necessary to do so since the state-owned oil company Petrotrin was losing billions of dollars (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents)
annually.

In June this year, the Keith Rowley government said it had hoped to take a decision by the end of August regarding the sale of the refinery and dismissed the assertion of Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) that the refinery could not be sold without their permission.

The OWTU, through its company, Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited, had made two unsuccessful bids for the Petrotrin oil refinery.

But as he presented the TT$59.7 billion national budget to Parliament during a marathon five and a half hours, Imbert said that the bidders are a loc ally-based consortium, CRO Consortium, comprising DR Commodities Ltd, Chemie-Tech and Ocala, the US-based iNca Energy LLC and Nigeria-based Dando PLC.

He said they had been selected by the US-based Scotia Capita, which had been hired to manage the procurement process, and an evaluation committee, from a list of 10 interested parties.

“A formal selective request for proposals process will now be initiated to determine the winner of these companies,” Imbert told legislators, adding that an evaluation committee, “comprising knowledgeable and experienced persons” had been selected from the public and private sectors, “to evaluate a complex transaction of this nature.”

Imbert said Scotia Capital required potential bidders to address specific requirements in its expressions of interest, including proof of qualification to own and operate the refinery assets, experience in operating a refinery and evidence of the potential source of financing, among several others.

Imbert said the government had been unsuccessful in ts efforts to sell or lease the refinery on two occasions because the preferred bidders “could not show any tangible evidence of their ability to raise the necessary capital to open and operate the refinery”.

Patriotic Energies and Technologies Co Ltd, submitted a bid in 2019 and was initially given the nod to acquire the refinery. But the bid faced challenges, owing to financing concerns, and negotiations eventually fell through.

In July, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), an Indian multinational company expressed an interest in taking over the refinery but withdrew in early August, with Prime Minister Rowley blaming the main opposition United National Congress (UNC) for engaging in personal attacks against the owners.

“In pursuit of the overarching objective to attract private sector investment for the reopening of the refinery, Trinidad Petroleum Company – the company holding assets for the defunct Petrotrin – commenced a third procurement process in 2024, with the solicitation of expressions of interest from new potential bidders, and the parties who participated in the previous two attempts,” Imbert said.

He said the former refinery was unprofitable because it was overstaffed, operating with as much as five times the number of workers required for efficiency and “would never have been profitable under its previous configuration.

“However, the government believes that if the refinery can be reopened without any burden on the treasury, this will provide a number of benefits in terms of employment, increased economic activity, availability of locally-produced fuel and reinvigoration of fenceline communities,” Imbert said, adding that taxpayers will be protected.

“It must be stressed that in this process, the government has no intention of exposing taxpayers to the recurring billion-dollar losses that occurred previously in the operation of the refinery…The success of this venture is predicated on the principle that it be at no cost to the taxpayer.”