There is growing interest in restarting operations at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery, with Energy and Energy Industries Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal saying strong demand for refined products is making the facility increasingly attractive to investors.
Dr Moonilal said the possibility of the refinery becoming operational again is realistic, with the Government now engaging with several interested parties.
“As a result of that, we are happy to welcome investors who are coming to see the refinery and, importantly, to gather some data as well. So that’s where we are now. I anticipate that we will have a demand for refined products and the refinery. So we are working along with Guyana, Suriname and, of course, with Venezuela, that we have always had contact with.”
He said the current demand for refined products has increased interest in the refinery, particularly as the global refining landscape changes.
“We have also indicated before that the refinery is now the hot topic, and we have much more interest now, simply because the landscape of refining has changed, as you all know, the United States has now a serious concern about the supply of refined products given the prices there that the ordinary citizen and resident in the US pays. So because of that, the Gulf Stream refiners have been asked to produce more but there is a capacity issue.”
Minister Moonilal said the Government is anticipating a relatively quick restart of some operations at the refinery.
“We believe that there are one or two plants in that refinery that will take, with proper investment, six months and then make the products available, and you could expand the range of products as you go along. As you all know now, this is now the flashpoint of the planet in terms of oil production, because our neighbours are high producers, both Guyana and Venezuela, and Suriname of course has exciting news with their gas find.”
He said, however, that the Government is taking a careful approach to ensure potential investors and proposals are properly vetted.
“This thing requires a really important legal and commercial process, and we are going through the process, and in a few days we will have a chat with a few interested parties. We’ve been talking since last year. I mean, I’ve met groups in India, Guyana, Suriname who have expressed interest in the refinery. In fact, we have had some interest by an entity out of Saudi Arabia as well. So that we have received all.”
Dr Moonilal also stressed that health and safety would be a priority in any effort to restart operations.
“The people we meet are very, very clear on the importance of health and safety. They look at our record and we look at their record, so it is not one way with health and safety. We want to ensure that the players have an outstanding record in health and safety. And they want to ensure that the refinery itself, the asset integrity, is considered strongly and that they do the requisite work on the associated installations to ensure that we will not have a Niquan situation.”
The Energy Minister was speaking to members of the media following the National Gas Company’s presentation of its financial statements for the year ended December 31st, 2025.