We Want to Know the Real Value of Petrotrin’s Assets

The Economic Analysis Unit of Labour Advisory Bureau is of the view that concerted efforts are being made to dispose of the assets of the Petrotrin Refinery as scrap iron. This is the strategy being employed by the one percent (1%) elite to acquire those assets at prices which are way below their true market value. This strategy is well supported by international interests who have a vested interest in enjoying a steal of a deal especially against a background in which the P.N.M administration is strapped for cash and the trade union movement is the weakest it has been since the 1930s. The thinking in 1% circles is “Now is the best time to strike. We already have the Prime Minister and his cabinet in our back pockets and the trade union movement is in a coma.” Our investigations reveal that the government and some international publications gave the general public the fake impressions that the refinery was 100 years old and is in a totally dilapidated state. Furthermore, it was communicated that the refinery was a ward of the state; plagued by high and rising debt; low production levels; escalating manpower costs and the loss of billions of dollars.

The governments and their international allies hid from the public the list of major upgrades of the refinery undertaken in the early 1970’s and the mid 1990’s. (See)

Most importantly, no mention was made of the Gasoline Optimization Programme (G.O.P) which operated from 2006 to 2014 at a cost of US $1.8 billion and produced a number of new plants at Pointe-A- Pierre including the Ultra- Low Sulphur Diesel Plant.

The Economic Analysis Unit of the Labour Advisory Bureau is of the view that the assets of Petrotrin belong to the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, we the citizens, and not the members of the Rowley Cabinet and the (1%) elite.

Does the the PNM administration not have a legal and moral responsibility to account to all the citizens of T&T for all the assets of Petrotrin, including, but not restricted to, the assets of the Refinery? But since when does morality or legality come into play when the objective is to convert public property into private capital accumulation?

The Ministry of Finance Valuation Division, the official arm of the Government, must undertake a comprehensive valuation of Pointe-A- Pierre refinery and of all the other assets both land and offshore that belong to Petrotrin. These include among others:

· The two thousand acres or 809 hectares of land (prime industrial real estate) on which the refinery is located

· The Point-A-Pierre harbour.

· The Augustus Long Hospital. (The private medical mafia are scrambling to privatise it)