Page 9 - LatAmOil Week 29 2021

LatAmOil MEXICO LatAmOil

It did not name other firms but noted that the trading firms, the sources said. These require-
Swiss company has been accused of bribing ments have been burdensome enough to have
government officials and state oil company strained relationships between Pemex and the
executives in Latin America in exchange for fuel traders, they added.
supply contracts. As of press time, Pemex had not commented
Additionally, the news agency pointed out on or confirmed reports of the suspension of
that Pemex has become generally wary of work- new agreements with Trafigura.
ing with trading firms – not just Trafigura, but For its part, the trading firm dismissed con-
also competitors such as Vitol (Netherlands). It cerns about corruption, saying that it had sub-
quoted two other sources as saying that Pemex mitted its compliance standards for review by
was concerned about the risks it might sustain independent external counsel.
by doing business with partners that were under “We see no basis for new business to be
suspicion of corruption or fraud. suspended with Trafigura and look forward to
These concerns have led Pemex to impose clarifying the situation with PMI at the earliest
additional compliance requirements on trans- opportunity,” a spokeswoman for the company
actions involving international commodity told Reuters last week. ™

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
TPHL seeks expressions of interest in

second attempt to sell Petrotrin refinery

TRINIDAD Petroleum Holdings Ltd (TPHL) operational expenses and pay for an overdue
has taken the first step towards making another equipment upgrade.
attempt to sell the Petrotrin oil refinery in Point- The first sale attempt led the government of
a-Pierre. In a statement dated July 19, the com- Trinidad and Tobago to begin negotiations with
pany said it had “commenced a broad-based Patriotic Energies and Technologies, a sub-
process for a transaction” involving the plant, sidiary of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union
which is owned by Guaracara Refining Co., one (OWTU), which represents local oil and gas
of TPHL’s four subsidiaries. It indicated that this workers, in 2019. However, Port of Spain was
process was expected to lead to a contract cover- never satisfied with Patriotic’s offer, which was
ing the sale of the refinery and its assets, as well revised several times. As a result, it decided ear-
as the restarting of the plant, which has been idle lier this year to abandon the first privatisation
since 2019. campaign and try again. ™
For now, the statement said, TPHL is offering
to make more information available to potential
investors. “Interested parties or consortia [that]
possess the requisite expertise will be provided
with an initial marketing document and [will]
be able to participate in the process upon the
execution of a legally binding non-disclosure
agreement,” it explained.
It also directed potential investors to direct
inquiries to Scotia Capital (USA), which is act-
ing as TPHL’s exclusive financial advisor for the
process.
The Petrotrin refinery has a throughput
capacity of 140,000 barrels per day (bpd), but
it was operating below capacity for some time
before it suspended operations in 2019. The
government of Trinidad and Tobago began try-
ing to sell the plant in 2019, saying it doubted
Guaracara’s ability to reverse the decline that had
caused it to incur $1bn worth of losses between
2014 and 2019. At that time, Port of Spain said
it was looking for an investor who could pump
about $4bn into the plant, including $2bn to
cover unpaid debts and another $2bn to cover Petrotrin has a capacity of 140,000 bpd (Photo: Guardian)

Week 29 22•July•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9