NP to spend $220 million

Speaking at a parliamentary joint select committee meeting (government ministries, statutory authorities and state enterprises II) at the Red House Tuesday, Callender said the 13 existing Quik Shoppes in TT would be privatised in order to regain losses incurred by the franchise.

Responding to a question from Opposition senator Jennifer Jones Kernahan, Callender said while there may be nothing wrong with the Quik Shoppe concept, he did not think it was applicable for the purposes of a State run company. He said such ventures would be better handled by private owners who could closely monitor their operations.

He added that gas bars (featuring wide aisles, self-service options and automobile based products for sale) would become the main features of the new service stations. Callender said it was necessary to undertake the service station upgrade now because NPMC inherited a system that was over 50 years old.

Callender said the upgrade would also see the storage tank capacities in urban and rural areas being increased to 30,000 gallons of gasoline and 18,000 gallons in urban and rural areas respectively. Callender assured the committee that NPMC is operating within requirements of the OSHA act with the inclusion of assessments from the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) prior to removal or construction of storage tanks. He said 15 stations have already been upgraded and another eight would be handled this year.

Energy Ministry permanent secretary Leroy Mayers told the committee there were no plans to further liberalise the local gasoline retail market at this time. There are 169 service stations operating in TT: 26 are state owned and operated, 68 are operated by independent dealers but state owned, 66 are owned and operated by wholesale dealers and nine are UNIPET stations.

Callender also spoke about plans to build pipelines from Petrotrin’s Pointe-a-Pierre refinery to NPMC’s Sea Lots compound and to Piarco International Airport in order to improve the company’s ability to deliver gasoline and other fuels.