Energy Minister Dr. Roodal Moonilal says Trinidad and Tobago is now closer than ever to restarting the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery, following major discussions with India’s top energy companies.
Fresh from India Energy Week 2026, the Energy Minister says the reopening of the refinery is moving from conversation to concrete action.
Speaking during Thursday’s Post Cabinet Media Briefing, he confirmed that Indian Oil Corporation, India’s largest state-owned energy enterprise, is preparing to send a technical team to this country to evaluate the refinery’s condition and outline a pathway to restart.
“Just to place in perspective that Indian Oil operates 10 refineries in India, and we’re extremely pleased that they have this capacity, this market, and we intend to work with them to ensure that we participate in a process that would lead to the reopening and restarting of the refinery at Point-a-Pierre.”
He noted that the delegation is versed in operations of this nature.
“We discussed with that delegation the provision of technical expertise and strategic directions. They have a wealth of experience in refinery capacity at various refineries, as I said, across Asia. The delegation indicated that there is a readily available local workforce to support the resumption of refining operations.”
Dr. Moonilal said the visit is expected within weeks.
“We expect within a short period of a few weeks, certainly post-Carnival, we expect that we will be in a position to welcome a technical team from Indian Oil to look at the refinery and to give us some direction, some support. They were extremely pleased to return to Trinidad and Tobago, since they had been here before, and they were extremely happy to know, which they indicated, the powerful local labour force that we have in refining and oil and gas.”
The Government also met with Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s largest refinery complex, and Dr. Moonilal says Reliance has shown interest in the Pointe-a-Pierre asset.
“We were pleased to meet a high-power delegation from Reliance Industries Limited. Some of you may know Reliance operates the largest single-site complex refinery in the world in Gujarat, India, where they process on a daily basis, I believe, around 1.5 million barrels per day. We were happy to meet Reliance to discuss matters pertaining to the refinery in particular and other areas of interest.”
The Minister also indicated that Indian Oil is not only interested in Trinidad and Tobago but has also voiced interest in the entire Caribbean region.