The Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU), parent company of Patriotic Energies and Technologies Company Limited, is set to host a news conference today at 10am, to discuss government’t refusal of their proposal to purchase the Petrotrin refinery for the third time.
Reports are that the OWTU members were shocked by the announcement by Finance Minister Colm Imbert on Thursday, as they were hopeful that this proposal would have been a success.
Imbert said Patriotic submitted two proposals. One which would have involved Government putting out US$5 billion in tax credits to Patriotic’s financiers Credit Suisse (CS). The other arrangement involved an outlay by Government totalling US$6 billion over seven years.
He said “Essentially we couldn’t accept the proposals because the burden on the Government was just too onerous and it would have returned us to where we were (with Petrotrin). Regrettably, Cabinet has concluded we can’t proceed with this matter.”
One of Patriotic’s directors, Ozzie Warwick, in an interview with Newsday, said they were shocked by the news, as Government kept them in the dark by not telling them of the decision before the Finance Minister announced it at the post-Cabinet news conference.
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