As a restart for the Pointe-a-Pierre re­fin­ery looms ahead, for­mer Petrotrin chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet, who led the clo­sure and re­struc­tur­ing of the com­pa­ny, re­mains scep­ti­cal.

He told Guardian Me­dia in June that it was un­like­ly that any for­eign or re­gion­al com­pa­ny would want to man­age the re­fin­ery on the ba­sis that they would have to re­in­state all the terms and con­di­tions of the con­tracts be­fore the re­struc­tur­ing was done.

Es­pinet was re­fer­ring to the im­pli­ca­tions of the Mis­cel­la­neous Pro­vi­sions (Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um, Paria Fu­el Trad­ing and Guaracara Re­fin­ing Vest­ing) (Amend­ment) Bill, 2026, which was passed in Par­lia­ment on June 17.