Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar attempted to harm the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union’s bid through Patriotic Energies and Technologies to acquire the assets of the former Petrotrin refinery.
But she failed.
As he blasted Persad-Bissessar over statements she made this week on Patriotic’s proposal to own and re-start the refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre, OWTU president general Ancel Roget said there was an attempt by the Opposition Leader to cause “great injury” to the acquisition process.
In a UNC virtual meeting on Monday, Persad-Bissessar raised questions about Patriotic’s bid for the assets of the former State oil company and its proposed financing arrangements through Trafigura, one of the world’s largest commodities traders.
Addressing reporters at OWTU’s San Fernando headquarters yesterday, Roget said: “We want to condemn in the strongest possible terms outright all of those assertions made by the honourable Leader of the Opposition in her campaign to deny us an opportunity to protect our legacy and to advance Trinidad and Tobago and to advance the concerns and the well-being of the small man who today is left wanting.”
He said the records would show that the UNC was always against the OWTU and Patriotic acquiring the refinery, making it clear that if they had won the general election, they were going to cancel the acquisition process.
“When the announcement was made on October 31 that Patriotic will no longer be part of this acquisition process and that our proposal was denied, what in fact that did, while it brought sorrow and pain and agony not just to the OWTU and its members but to the hundreds of thousands of persons in Trinidad and Tobago, it brought joy to the heart of the honourable Leader of the Opposition.
“I also wish to remind everyone that it was only in October of last year, two prominent individuals from the United National Congress went to the High Court and filed an injunction to stop the process while at the same time they portrayed they were supporting Petrotrin workers.”
Obsession with Trafigura
Addressing the Trafigura matter, Roget said there seemed to be some obsession and sustained campaign against Trafigura with a narrative that the company is a notorious trader and there was some conspiracy with OWTU and Trafigura, where the company came to Trinidad and Tobago under the pretext of assisting OWTU, but really to gain the assets of the country.
Roget shared a copy of an extract from an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report which showed the volume of business Trafigura did with State-owned Enterprises (SOEs), namely Lake Asphalt, Petrotrin and the National Gas Company for the period 2014–2017. The extract showed that Trafigura would have paid some US$758.65 million to the energy companies during that period, with US$80.79 million being paid to Petrotrin and US$105.6 million paid to NGC in 2014.
“Two major revenue streams coming to the country when the now-Leader of the Opposition was then-prime minister. The Cabinet of Trinidad and Tobago must have known where these two major revenue streams came from. The (former) prime minister ought to have known. Her Minister of Energy then ought to have known.
“My point this afternoon is she ought to have known indeed, if she didn’t know, then we’re in deep trouble because it will be likened to ‘sunshine can kill Covid’.”
Roget said it is most outrageous, reckless and irresponsible for the Opposition Leader to try to portray the OWTU in scandal and collusion with Trafigura since she ought to have known that the company was dealing in Trinidad, specifically with Petrotrin, even prior to 2014.
“It is incumbent upon us because we have the information, to put this information out in the public domain to condemn and once and for all put to bed this insatiable obsession with Trafigura.”
“There was an attempt by the honourable Leader of the Opposition to spread misinformation in misleading the country by saying the original (request for proposal), which we placed our bid for, did not include Paria (Fuel Trading Company) and therefore we are now coming from behind to try to put in a bid to acquire Paria,” Roget told reporters.
Roget said with the refinery in operation, it was necessary to have both refinery and a port. Thus, their bid would have been for the refinery, now identified as Guaracara, and the port, now identified as Paria.
“So our response to the RFP and to put in a bid, it had to have been for both 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 and Tobago,” Roget said.
He said it is a matter of public record that their bid was for both refinery and port, and it was an act of treachery for someone who had knowledge to the contrary, to peddle this.
He added that Patriotic’s bid was announced in the Parliament and Persad-Bissessar was present when the announcement was made.
Attempt to cause hurt
On Monday Persad-Bissessar said that Patriotic had reduced its original bid of US$700 million to US$500 million, and that the Government was now willing to accept less money for the refinery.
However, Roget explained the change in Patriotic’s offer.
“Our new proposal would have taken into account the offer made by the Minister of Finance. We would have responded to that except to say that we’re now paying upfront for what we would have taken 13 years to pay — a three year moratorium, ten years to pay.
“And the net present value, what that would value in 13 years down the road is what our offer would have worked out to be in today’s value. And therefore, using the formula and guided by the experts in this regard, we would have come up with a price and that price would have been put forward in our proposal.”
He also noted that the refinery would have been out of operation for two years and maintenance work would have to be done on some of its equipment to get them operational. “You cannot take off a refinery, some 23 plants, leave it off for two years and then expect to start it up just like that. It takes a whole lot of capital and because we want to ensure that when it starts up, it can run and make money, pay all our debts, it has to be with a level of reliability and therefore we have to repair.
“The goodly Leader of the Opposition gave Patriotic the thumbs down and make it look we want to have a steal of a deal ‘because they offered US$700 million and now they offering less, they offer US$500 million’.
“What took place, there was an attempt to cause great injury and harm to the acquisition process, to ensure that those assets are not acquired on behalf of our people of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Roget said Persad-Bissessar’s pronouncements were meant to be a fatal blow to ensure that the small man did not rise to economic prominence in the country and it represented a thinly-veiled approach to hide the real intention to halt the process.
He said after calling for an independent valuation committee to review their proposal and the announcement was made that Patriotic was still in the game, and they now afforded an opportunity to present before the committee the full extent of their proposal, that would have angered and infuriated the person who would have joy had they not gotten to go ahead with the acquisition process.
He added that they met with the valuation committee last Friday and were scheduled to meet again yesterday.
