Chairman of Heritage Petroleum, Senior Counsel Michael Quamina, says some potential buyers for the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery seemed to be interested in the deal only for the purchase of Paria Fuel Trading Company.
Speaking during a Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, he said: “We would actually be very clear that Paria is not part of the deal, and people were putting proposals with Paria included in the deal. And in fact, I would tell you, there were some prospective persons that actually, you could tell that they were actually after Paria and not the Refinery.”
Mr. Quamina, who is also Chairman of Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited (TPHL), explained the major reason for splitting the sale of both the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery and Paria Fuel Trading Company.
“Whoever the prospective purchaser for the Refinery is going to get very preferential terms in terms of access to the Paria port, and one of the issues that we had to make sure is that it doesn’t affect Heritage’s exports through the port. So that aspect is being managed very carefully, but the fact about it is that Paria has become quite an important asset for the State, so I think that that is the reason why it has been carved out.”
General Manager for Paria Fuel Trading Company, Mushtaq Mohammed, said the preservation of the refinery continues, costing TT$6M annually. He noted that it is hoped that these monies will be recovered when a buyer is sought.
“Once successful, we expect that, you know, we may see rewards from to cover the cost of maintaining the Refinery, but again that will be subjected to pricing and the markets and what, you know, how the progress of the Refinery goes with regards to restart. But we remain optimistic that these costs could be recovered.”
Both the asset for sale of the Refinery and Paria in 2019 was valued at $4.42 billion, and while the Paria part is no longer up for consideration, Mr. Quamina said he doesn’t expect a potential buyer to offer the same value for the Refinery.
“But the fact about it is that I don’t think that the value that you see there is going to be what we can look forward to somebody writing a cheque for.”
He said Scotia Capital is still involved as advisers for the Refinery and that they’re being paid at a rate of US$55,000 a month.
“We’ve been going through different stages, so I think in relation to this recent exercise, Mr. Mohammed would say from when.”
Mr. Mohammed supplied, “I can’t recall the exact date, but it would have been around February 2024.”
However, he noted that the priority is to get the Refinery operational, with “little financial commitment” from TPHL.