Eyes still on BNTCL

Rubis Caribbean is still very much interested in purchasing the state-owned Barbados National Terminal Company Oil Limited (BNTCL).

However, the company’s chief executive officer Mauricio Nicholls has said he is content to have BNTCL store its oil even if Government chooses not to sell the business.

He made the comments following a courtesy visit by Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce Dwight Sutherland to Rubis’ Welches, St Thomas headquarters this morning.

Government had initially agreed to sell the BNTCL to SOL for US$100 million back in 2017.

However, Rubis, which wanted a stake in BNTCL and offered to pay US$50 million, strenuously objected to the deal and argued that the sale would be unfair and would hand a monopoly of the oil market to SOL. The agreement included a15-year moratorium clause in the Sale and Purchase Agreement.

Rubis filed for a judicial review of the approval and on November 23, 2018, the Fair Trading Commission ruled against the sale, saying that the proposed transaction, as it stood, would be anti-competitive.