Tag Archives: Petrotrin refinery

“[…] Minister Colm Imbert said that the $1 increase is so that the burden of adjustment can be equally shared between the Government and people. This is utter rubbish.  “The real issue is how is the burden of adjustment to be shared between the rich and the poor—between those who …

“[…] Heritage is not a publicly traded company, so how can shares be offered to employees? The share offering Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley referred to with FCB is different, in that FCB is traded on the stock exchange. “Even if Heritage was a publicly traded company, there is no …

I wrote recently about the startling decision of the government to reject the offer of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Limited (Patriotic) to acquire the Petrotrin oil refinery, which the government closed down. When the titular head of the Ministry of Energy, Senator Franklin Khan, announced the sudden rejection, he gave …

“The assets of Heritage are in a bad way… Years of poor maintenance has taken its toll. “[…] The recent rupture of tank no 27 in Point Fortin during pressure testing and the resultant flow into surrounding areas of 600,000 gallons of water and some hydrocarbon residue, causing respiratory problems …

I drove past the Petrotrin refinery one night and felt the stillness that darkness provides. In my imagination, I saw the stare of thousands of eyes from the darkness. It is now six months since Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet wielded his axe, with the full permission of the current government, …

The Privy Council decision in Maharaj v Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, [2019] UKPC 21 (20 May 2019) has shone a Guaracara-esque spotlight onto Petrotrin’s decision to abandon its $97 million USD claim against Malcolm Jones. According to the Court, based on the evidence available to them, ‘there …

Last week predictably began with more turbulence over the aftermath of the Petrotrin shut down and over one of the successor companies, Paria Fuel Trading Company Limited. Our governments have had marked communications deficits because there is too much attempted secrecy over the process attendant upon deals constantly being made …

What the hell? Can one set out to sell a State asset by mistake? ‘Wth’ is a milder version of the social media acronym used to express surprise or disgust. It was my response to the Minister of Energy’s implausible media release on Monday last related to the failure of …

This column was one of the first among regular commentaries to identify that Government slackness was embracing criminality, and to make dire predictions about where this would lead. The assertion was met with dismay on the cocktail circuit. A well regarded commentator suggested to me that our governments were ‘mooks’ …

Good day, former Petrotrin worker. Today marks the end of life as you knew it for the past whatever number of years you worked proudly for Petrotrin. Today, you awake with an emptiness deep in your soul and a lack of clarity about your future. You are not even assured that …

The Thema Williams judgment sits as one more example of corruption among those entrusted to dispassionately look after our best national interests. Brick by brick we dismantle the foundations of trust, essential to the proper functioning of our society. From 2009, when the first local polls tracked the public confidence …

“I have mixed feelings. Anger, anxiety, disbelief, and acceptance take turns alternating in my mind. Nostalgia. “[…] I remember my first day as a trainee […] being yelled at in front of the entire shop by an older man in my first year, ‘Allyuh ‘oman only trying to take man …