On March 25, 2026, Italian engineering firm MAIRE announced that its subsidiary Tecnimont Services had been awarded a US$50 million contract to study the rehabilitation of the Guaracara Refinery Complex in Point-a-Pierre. The announcement came on MAIRE's own corporate website, confirmed by Oil & Gas Journal, Hydrocarbon Processing, and BNamericas.
The Government of Trinidad and Tobago made no announcement. The refinery's own restart committee chair said he had no information. And the company listed as Tecnimont's local partner is not the one most Trinbagonians have heard of.
This is a story about a US$50 million commitment that appeared from nowhere, attached to a company that did not exist until recently, financed by people who will not identify themselves, for a refinery that has been closed since 2018.
A New Name for an Old Problem
The Guaracara Refinery - formerly the Petrotrin refinery - has been mothballed since October 2018. That closure came with the restructuring of the state oil company, which split into Heritage Petroleum for production, Paria Fuel Trading for downstream operations, and Guaracara Refining Company to hold the refinery assets. It also came with the retrenchment of 4,700 workers.
Since then, the Oilfields Workers' Trade Union has been the most vocal advocate for restarting the refinery. Their vehicle was Patriotic Energies and Technologies - PET - which made three unsuccessful bids between 2019 and 2021. The original offer was US$700 million upfront cash. Later rounds included more favourable moratorium terms from the government - three years interest-only, ten years to pay. None succeeded. A key sticking point remained: a US$500 million lien on the refinery assets from Trinidad Petroleum Holdings bond obligations.
But the entity named in the Tecnimont announcement is not PET. It is Patriotic Energies Services - PES - a different company.
OWTU chief education and research officer Ozzie Warwick confirmed to CNC3 that Tecnimont has partnered with PES, not PET. The reason is not subtle. PET carries judgment debts. In 2025, a court ruled that the OWTU and PET were jointly liable for over US$4 million in unpaid loans to KCL Capital Market Brokers. Deloitte has also sued the OWTU for millions in outstanding fees related to services provided during earlier refinery bid processes. OWTU president Ancel Roget acknowledged the union was working to settle "almost $40 million in debt accumulated during failed attempts to obtain the refinery."
Creating a new entity to pursue the same asset while the old entity drowns in debt is not illegal. But it raises questions about the track record being presented to international partners.
Who Is Paying?
The central question is financing. US$50 million is not a small study. It is more than some Caribbean nations spend on entire infrastructure projects in a year.
Energy Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal told reporters that the government is "certainly not paying for the study." Warwick said it is being financed by "investment partners who will be disclosed at the appropriate time." He also referenced "courtesies extended" by the government to allow access to the refinery site.
Kevin Ramnarine, chairman of the government's own Refinery Restart Committee, told media: "I have no information on the Technimont story."
This is an unusual configuration. A private company with no public track record has secured a US$50 million study contract with an Italian multinational, the government says it is not paying, the person who should know about refinery restart plans says he knows nothing, and the financing comes from unnamed partners.
The Tecnimont study covers Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the rehabilitation, with completion expected by early 2027. MAIRE's corporate release describes the work as a pathway to subsequent front-end engineering design and full engineering, procurement, and construction contracts - meaning the US$50 million is the beginning, not the end.
What Happened to Oando?
Before PES appeared, there was another plan. In February 2025, Oando Trading was selected as the preferred bidder for a lease arrangement for the refinery. The lease model was different from the outright purchase Patriotic Energies had pursued - it would have kept ownership with the state while allowing a private operator to run the facility.
Energy Minister Moonilal subsequently put the Oando negotiations on hold. No public explanation was offered for why a selected preferred bidder was sidelined in favour of a study contract with a brand new entity.
The Geographic Error
One detail in MAIRE's announcement drew attention from observers. CEO Alessandro Bernini described the contract as expanding the company's presence "in Central America." Trinidad and Tobago is a Caribbean nation, not a Central American one. This is the kind of error that suggests the announcement was drafted by people with limited familiarity with the country - which, for a US$50 million commitment, is worth noticing.
What We Know and What We Don't
The facts that can be verified: MAIRE/Tecnimont announced the contract. The refinery has been closed since 2018. PES is a different legal entity from PET. PET carries significant judgment debts. The government says it is not paying. The Refinery Restart Committee chair says he has no information.
The facts that cannot yet be verified: who is financing the study, what government "courtesies" were extended and under what authority, whether PES has any operational track record, and why the Oando lease process was shelved.
A 150,000-barrel-per-day refinery is a nationally significant asset. The question of who controls its restart - and who pays for the studies that determine how - is not a technical matter. It is a public interest question that deserves public answers.
The US$50 million study is underway. The people of Trinidad and Tobago are still waiting to be told who is paying for it, and why.