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Re­open­ing the for­mer Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery will on­ly suc­ceed if the Gov­ern­ment se­cures a part­ner with sub­stan­tial fi­nan­cial re­sources and guar­an­teed ac­cess to crude oil, econ­o­mist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon has cau­tioned, fol­low­ing Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s an­nounce­ment that the Unit­ed States will as­sist in iden­ti­fy­ing a suit­able in­vestor.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said restart­ing the re­fin­ery was a key fo­cus of her re­cent bi­lat­er­al talks with US Sec­re­tary of State Mar­co Ru­bio, as Trinidad and To­ba­go seeks to deep­en co­op­er­a­tion with Wash­ing­ton on en­er­gy and se­cu­ri­ty. She dis­closed that Ru­bio agreed to con­nect the Gov­ern­ment with the US De­part­ment of En­er­gy to help iden­ti­fy “the best part­ner” to re­open the fa­cil­i­ty.

The Prime Min­is­ter added that sev­er­al en­ti­ties have al­ready ex­pressed in­ter­est. En­er­gy Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal has met with one prospec­tive part­ner, while she held dis­cus­sions with an­oth­er dur­ing her re­cent vis­it to St Kitts. Fur­ther talks ar e ex­pect­ed, in­clud­ing with the African Ex­port-Im­port Bank.