Trinidad Shortlists Final Bidders for Petrotrin Refinery

Trinidad’s government has announced three final finalists for the state-owned Petrotrin refinery.
According to Naija News, Nigeria’s Oando Plc, owned by Wale Tinubu, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s nephew, was one of the three final bids for the refinery takeover.
During a recent national budget presentation on Monday, Trinidad’s Finance Minister, Colm Imbert, named the bids.

Petrotrin is a defunct state-owned oil company in Trinidad & Tobago.

Minister Imbert stated that three companies from an initial pool of 10 applications have proceeded to the final stage: the CRO Consortium, which includes three Trinidadian firms, INCA Energy from the United States, and Nigeria’s Oando Plc.

The bidding process began in February 2024, when the Trinidad and Tobago government appointed US-based Scotia Capital to manage the refinery procurement efforts by inviting “expressions of interest.”

Imbert further stated: “A formal selective Request for Proposals process will now be initiated to determine the winner among these three companies, to restart the refinery, if found feasible.”
The individual stated that the submitted bids were evaluated using five particular criteria, one of which was a well-defined restart plan and schedule provided by the submitting organization.

According to National Bureau of Statistics data, Nigeria imports petroleum products from Trinidad & Tobago.

This predicament coincides with the lengthy idleness of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries at Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has yet to begin petroleum production at the Port Harcourt refinery, despite several missed deadlines.