Trinidadian gov’t plans to reopen oil refinery

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Trinidad and Tobago Government says it intends to restart the Petrotrin oil refinery that was officially shut down on November 30, 2018, by the Keith Rowley administration due to billions of dollars in debt and operational losses.

The previous government had said that the 101-year-old refinery had accumulated an estimated TT$12 billion (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) in debt and lost about TT$8 billion over a five year period.

But as he delivered the TT$63.3 billion national budget to Parliament on Monday, Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo said that the energy sector remains the main pillar of the country’s economic strength.