‘We would have been making a killing if our esteemed prime minister did not close down the refinery’
By Neil Gosine
OIL refineries are making nearly five times as much money from refining petrol as they did a year ago, recent data show. Just look at the article published on BBC News.
A report on June 10, 2022, stated, “Refineries cash in as petrol prices soar.”
A lack of capacity to refine petrol and diesel from crude oil has helped to increase fuel prices to record levels and increased profits for refineries worldwide.
Petrol prices are at an all-time high but poor Trinidad and Tobago, we no longer have a woking refinery. The worldwide lack of refining capability has contributed to high fuel prices in other countries, including Trinidad and Tobago and now we see why it was so important to keep Petrotrin up and running.
Now we see the real business acumen of our prime minister and his energy technocrats. We would have been making a killing if our esteemed prime minister did not close down the refinery. Not to mention that we would have a steady stream of foreign exchange that is so desperately needed in this country right now.
The closure of Petrotrin has had ripple effects throughout our whole country, the impact to the economy, the employees and their families were devastating. It has had a domino effect across the country, not to mention putting thousands of families on the breadline, as well as hundreds of contractors and service companies that all depended on work from Petrotrin.
Now we are seeing the real cost of that closure. Higher unemployment rates. In fact, we have experienced one of our highest unemployment rates since the 1980s recession upon the closure of Petrotrin under this Rowley Government.
Unemployment ranged from highly skilled to unskilled including geologists, engineers, accountants, HSSE professionals, lawyers, operators, technicians, mechanics, pipefitters, labourers, janitors etc and the list goes on and on. Unemployment also extended to many of the working class citizens well.
This has had a downward impact as the GDP reduction continues to spiral down, as production power is reduced and importation bills get constantly higher. The forex has been affected tremendously during the transition and we do not seem to be able to find a light at the end of the dark clouds.
The unfortunate truth is everything is extremely hard now financially for the working class in this country and our prospects look dim. The prime minister and his energy team made some unintelligent and selfish decisions that have now come back to bite us in our behinds.
How can T&T economy find a way to sustain itself if there is no energy plan? If there is no refinery? And if there are no new natural gas discoveries in the near future? The price of fuel is so high at the moment that the average citizen can not afford to pay for it. Our Government has made it clear that we cannot afford to pay increased wages to our workers and prices of basic food items, basic necessities are rising daily because of fuel prices. We are seeing the unions begging for decent wage negotiations through these public sector salary negotiations. They have to face the reality that every citizen faces now, we just can’t afford to pay for it.
We have reached the lowest point, loss of hope and utter despair in our Leadership. Our great businessman or great leader Dr Rowley who can negotiate for himself several hundreds of thousands of dollars discounts for his own villas but can not make the right financially sound decisions for his country. His vision and direction have surely taken us to the brink of failure.
Neil Gosine is a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration MBA , BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. He is currently the candidate for the position of treasurer in the internal elections of the United National Congress. The views and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily that of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.
High Oil Prices But No Refinery
‘We would have been making a killing if our esteemed prime minister did not close down the refinery’
OIL refineries are making nearly five times as much money from refining petrol as they did a year ago, recent data show. Just look at the article published on BBC News.
A report on June 10, 2022, stated, “Refineries cash in as petrol prices soar.”
A lack of capacity to refine petrol and diesel from crude oil has helped to increase fuel prices to record levels and increased profits for refineries worldwide.
Petrol prices are at an all-time high but poor Trinidad and Tobago, we no longer have a woking refinery. The worldwide lack of refining capability has contributed to high fuel prices in other countries, including Trinidad and Tobago and now we see why it was so important to keep Petrotrin up and running.
Now we see the real business acumen of our prime minister and his energy technocrats. We would have been making a killing if our esteemed prime minister did not close down the refinery. Not to mention that we would have a steady stream of foreign exchange that is so desperately needed in this country right now.
The closure of Petrotrin has had ripple effects throughout our whole country, the impact to the economy, the employees and their families were devastating. It has had a domino effect across the country, not to mention putting thousands of families on the breadline, as well as hundreds of contractors and service companies that all depended on work from Petrotrin.
Now we are seeing the real cost of that closure. Higher unemployment rates. In fact, we have experienced one of our highest unemployment rates since the 1980s recession upon the closure of Petrotrin under this Rowley Government.
Unemployment ranged from highly skilled to unskilled including geologists, engineers, accountants, HSSE professionals, lawyers, operators, technicians, mechanics, pipefitters, labourers, janitors etc and the list goes on and on. Unemployment also extended to many of the working class citizens well.
This has had a downward impact as the GDP reduction continues to spiral down, as production power is reduced and importation bills get constantly higher. The forex has been affected tremendously during the transition and we do not seem to be able to find a light at the end of the dark clouds.
The unfortunate truth is everything is extremely hard now financially for the working class in this country and our prospects look dim. The prime minister and his energy team made some unintelligent and selfish decisions that have now come back to bite us in our behinds.
How can T&T economy find a way to sustain itself if there is no energy plan? If there is no refinery? And if there are no new natural gas discoveries in the near future? The price of fuel is so high at the moment that the average citizen can not afford to pay for it. Our Government has made it clear that we cannot afford to pay increased wages to our workers and prices of basic food items, basic necessities are rising daily because of fuel prices. We are seeing the unions begging for decent wage negotiations through these public sector salary negotiations. They have to face the reality that every citizen faces now, we just can’t afford to pay for it.
We have reached the lowest point, loss of hope and utter despair in our Leadership. Our great businessman or great leader Dr Rowley who can negotiate for himself several hundreds of thousands of dollars discounts for his own villas but can not make the right financially sound decisions for his country. His vision and direction have surely taken us to the brink of failure.
Neil Gosine is a former chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration MBA , BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. He is currently the candidate for the position of treasurer in the internal elections of the United National Congress. The views and opinions expressed by him in this column are not necessarily that of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.