Browne says he expected government’s rejection of Patriotic’s refinery bid

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Browne says he expected government’s rejection of Patriotic’s refinery bid

“I expected that the government would have refused the bid.”

That was the statement made by former government minister Mariano Browne, following government’s rejection of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited’s proposals to purchase the Petrotrin refinery.

Not surprised to say the least, Browne, in an interview with the Newsday, said “I did not anticipate OWTU’s success in getting the assets. There are strategic reasons for that because whoever gets Petrotrin’s assets is in control of the storage facilities for the distribution of fuel to the country.”

Based on that, Browne said “I do not see any government handing over a monopoly to a trade union.”
He added that “whoever controls the refinery needs the tank farms because there are not enough serviceable units. The company would need the tank farm to store crude as well as the finished products.”

Browne noted that “Government was being friendly to the bid, based on the concessions the government was prepared to offer.
He said “Presuming that government was prepared to give the deal to OWTU, one could say maybe the government was not pleased with the bid. Or two, it never considered giving it to the OWTU in the first place.”

Browne said government will have to consider many things and we will just have to wait and see how this thing pans out.

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