SUNDAY 14 OCTOBER, 2018 – UWI TODAY
17
will have the ability, with the E&P only operating, to finance all
of that operation.”
Both the Petrotrin Board and the Government have been
vehemently admonished for the apparent lack of transparency
in deciding to close the refinery. In the confines of the UWI JFK
auditorium, the criticisms in this regard came in hard and fast.
Among those proclaiming their dissent were former Petrotrin
Boardmember George De Verteuil andWINADDirector Folade
Mutota who called on the Board to share the McKinsey report
with the public.
However, Espinet said: “I think that I have, as many times as
you have asked for it, said McKinsey never produced a report.”
He relayed that McKinsey worked together with Petrotrin’s team
to determine how the R&M division could become cash neutral
but concluded that it was not possible because of the quantum
of capital required.
The beleaguered Chairman said the only way to maintain
refinery operations was for the State to take this on as an additional
debt, with no understanding of how it was going to be paid, “and
we said to the Government: we don’t agree to that.”
“Our offer was to tell the Government: You don’t get involved
in this. We don’t want you to refinance, we don’t want you to do
anything. If this has to be refinanced, let it be that it pays for itself
rather than have my granddaughter pay for it,” said Espinet.
Economist David Abdulah, labour rights
activist and a former leading member
of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union
,
disagreed with closing the refinery. He
argued that the focus should be on improving
the refined product in order to stop the
losses on the international market where the
majority of Petrotrin’s crude is being sold at a
lower price than competingWest Texan crude because of its high
sulphur content and viscosity level, which makes the production
process more costly.
Abdulah said the union had submitted an option for the
leasing of the refinery to foreigners who would be able to put the
necessary infrastructure in place to do so.
“Knowing what is happening with renewables…the market
for hydrocarbons is going to be limited. Surely we need to try
to monetise those assets now, in order to build up our reserves
in our Heritage and Stabilisation Fund by investing directly in
diversification,” said Abdulah.
He added that although diversification cannot take place
in a one to five-year timeframe, T&T should seek to use its
hydrocarbon windfalls and assets to start the diversification
process.
Dr Thackwray “Dax” Driver, who is CEO
of the Energy Chamber of T&T (formerly
the South Trinidad Chamber),
spoke
about how to ameliorate the impacts of the
refinery closure. He suggested several things,
including:
• increasing local content on projects;
• involving local capital markets;
• conducting competency assessments and retraining;
• helping people in entrepreneurial industries;
• working with exporting services.
In a later public question session, Dr Roger Hosein suggested
that the State could consider opening two e-TecK Parks near the
refinery to help create jobs to reduce human suffering. “We have
a history of saying that we will provide financing for community
care and we will aid employment, and then nothing amounts
from it. There’s a real human side to this whole dilemma, and so
the State can consider that,” said Dr Hosein.
Abdulah: Don’t close
the refinery
Continued from
page 16
Igniting commitment to tackle developmental challenges
is central to the Conference on the Economy (COTE), the
annual landmark event of the Department of Economics
which took place October 10 – 11 at the Learning Resource
Centre Auditorium (LRC), at UWI.
The theme this year was “Economic Development
Challenges: Looking towards 2030.” This year’s conference
honoured Professor Patrick Watson who has served The
UWI for over 30 years inmany capacities, including as Dean
of the Faculty of Social Science andDirector of the Sir Arthur
Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES).
The conference was organized around the sub-themes:
Non-energy Export Growth; Issues in Labour Economics;
The Informal Sector and Economic Development; Monetary
Policy Challenges; Greening the Economy; and Economics
of Social Issues.
Before the conference, on Thursday, September 27
there was a lively day of events which included an armchair
discussion, graduate poster competition, Make-a-thon and
youth debate competitions.
The Arm-Chair Discussion was on the topic “Looking
towards 2030: A Youth Perspective”. It was facilitated by
Nikolai Edwards, with representation from The UWI,
University of the Southern Caribbean, and NorthGate
College. Panelists Lyndrison Lincoln, Rocyn Vitalis and
Zachary Joel presented a youth perspective on topics
including Education, Training and Development, Health
and Entrepreneurship.
This was followed by presentations from three students
as part of the Graduate Poster Competition. The Make-a-
Thon competition involved building a model based on a
Circular Economy.
The debate competitions involved two secondary schools
(NorthGate College and Bishops East/Trinity College),
and two tertiary institutions (The UWI and the University
of the Southern Caribbean). The high school students
debated the topic: “Be it resolved that privatization will
improve the efficiency of the health sector”, while the older
university students debated the topic: “Be it resolved that
the introduction of crypto-currency is beneficial to SIDS”.
Lively youth debates precede
CONFERENCE ON
THE ECONOMY
Some of the student debaters
Heads down, these
three Bishop Anstey
East/Trinity College
debaters check out
some points.
PHOTO: ANEEL KARIM
