Oando Trade DMCC from Lagos, Nigeria, has been selected as the “preferred bidder” for the restart of the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery.
The announcement was made by Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, Stuart Young, as he noted that the next step is discussions with Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd (TPHL).
He said there were two other bidders in the running, as recommended by an Evaluating Committee: CRO Consortium and INCA Refining from the US.
But according to Minister Young, Oando met the requirements to get the nod over the others in the running, despite certain international media reports where the Group was delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
“There were fifty, for example, negative media reports on open source with respect to the Oando Group, but the Evaluation Committee, having received that, were able to engage the group and to satisfy themselves, and to provide us with a report which satisfied us that there was not sufficient evidence or what had been claimed had been satisfied, and really it was that they were delisted on Johannesburg and Lagos stock exchanges, and then back on.”
He said the “ball” is now in the court of Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Ltd (TPHL) to advance discussions, noting that the Government is not giving up Paria Fuel Trading Company.
“There were some entities along the way that became obvious to the Evaluation Committee, they wanted to get hold of Paria for bunkering purposes and really were not interested in restarting the refinery. We, the Government, were adamant in our discussions with the Evaluation Committee that we have to protect the assets of Paria to also always ensure that we can provide domestic fuel to our population.”
Minister Young noted that this move will also reduce the burden on the State to preserve and upgrade the asset.
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