The Minister of Energy and Energy Industries is set to submit recommendations to Cabinet on reopening the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, following receipt of a technical report from the Refinery Reactivation Committee about four weeks ago.
This was confirmed by Minister Dr. Roodal Moonilal, speaking to reporters during the Post-Cabinet Media Briefing on Thursday evening.
He noted that the Ministry has completed its own internal analysis of the recently submitted report.
“As you know, the committee presented its report about four weeks ago. So at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, we have subjected that report to our own analysis and study. We have had a thorough analysis of the report, and we’re now in a position to make recommendations based upon the report. So we expect that we will make recommendations to the Cabinet and to the Honourable Prime Minister very soon, but the matter continues to engage us.”
He noted that the Ministry already has several proposals related to the refinery’s restart.
“We have received, of course, several expressions of interest from local and international entities that would like to participate in the restart of the refinery. But the report did indicate that the refinery can be restarted in relatively quick time with a certain quantum of finance capital and we expect now that our recommendations would be fleshed out in good time in January, and we’d be in a position to make strategic recommendations.”