For a third time in roughly four months, the Patriotic Energies and Technologies company, wholly owned by the Oilfield Workers Trade Union, has lost in its quest for purchase of the Petrotrin Refinery.

The announcement was made by Finance Minister Colm Imbert at Thursday’s post cabinet media briefing.

“Essentially, we could not accept the proposal because the burden on the government was just too onerous…it would take us back to where we were. The country was being asked to pay to buy its own asset…and allow it to be mortgaged to a third party.” Minister Imbert said. 

Imbert said Patriotic listed two options for purchase of the refinery- one requiring government to issue tax credits to Patriotic in the amount of US$750 million, and the other involved a ‘receivables purchase agreement between Patriotic and Credit Suisse, whereby the purchaser would agree to buy the assets in the form of receivables from Trinidad Petroleum.”

For the first proposal, the Finance Minister said ‘the implications of this option is that the revenue of the government would be reduced by $5 billion, because these tax credits can be sold to anyone and essentially would be a gift to Patriotic.”

The second option was also unfeasible for the State, according to Imbert, who said government would be required to be the guarantor on the loan. 

As a result of the third bid being rejected, the government will now move ahead and return to the open market for a buyer.