00:00And we are working with our partners to ensure that we get the best deal for the refinery and we'll
00:05be up and running. We have followed a process. There are sometimes people ask me, what's taking so long? Mr.
00:12Hawaii, they feel we could just go and plug it on. If you plug on the refinery, you might blow
00:16up San Fernando. This is a process we have to follow.
00:20Energy Minister Dr. Rural Munilal, as he spoke during an event hosted by the National Gas Company about its after
00:26-tax profit for 2025. He later spoke with the media about the state-owned oil refinery in Poynter Pair.
00:33It is now up to Trojan Tobago where there's the best deal for the people and where we can start
00:40quickly. We believe that there are one or two plants in that refinery that will take, with proper investment, could
00:49take six months and then make the products available and you could expand the range of products as you go
00:55along.
00:56TV6 used the sort for the details.
00:58In terms of international certification, in terms of safety for the restart of the refinery, how is that going as
01:05well too?
01:06Well, as I've said before, the people we meet are very, very clear on the importance of health and safety.
01:13They look at our record and we look at their record. So, it is not one way with health and
01:19safety. We want to ensure that the players have an outstanding record in health and safety.
01:24And they want to ensure that the refinery itself, the asset integrity is considered strongly and that they do the
01:32requisite work on the associated installations to ensure that we will not have a Nikon situation.
01:38So, I want to tell the country that the Poynter Pair refinery will not be another Nikon. It will not
01:44be.
02:00In a speech, Dr. Munilal gave an apparent response to criticisms from the opposition PNM about the length of time
02:07the UNC-led government is taking to fulfill its campaign promise to restart the refinery.
02:35As I said, this thing requires a really important legal and commercial process and we have gone through the process.
02:42And in a few days, we will have a chat with a few interested parties. We have been talking since
02:49last year. I mean, I've met groups in India, in Guyana, Suriname, who have expressed interest in refinery.
02:55In fact, we have some interest by an entity out of Saudi Arabia as well so that we have received
03:01all.
03:02I can indeed indicate that every single week in this country, we receive either virtually or in person, as we
03:10will in a few days, great interest in a restart of the refinery.
03:15Dr. Munilal said this is because the hemispheric landscape for refining has changed.
03:20The American people need the refined products. There's a demand. The Gulf Coast has only so much capacity and we
03:28are sitting close to two sovereign territories that will produce in a few, in a couple of years, two million
03:36barrels of oil per day.
03:38And we are a refining center. What could we ask for, you know, again, to be one hour away from
03:46two million barrels of oil per day? That is a great, a great resource.
03:51The energy minister said the government is taking its time to avoid what he called a false restart.
03:56As he said, recent cabinet decisions have also been pursuant to ensure a smooth restart of the refinery.
04:04Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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