Notwith­stand­ing the clo­sure of the Point-a-Pierre re­fin­ery in No­vem­ber 2018, T&T still ex­ports sig­nif­i­cant vol­umes of gaso­line and diesel to re­gion­al mar­kets.

These are prod­ucts that are im­port­ed in­to Trinidad by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing, stored and then re­ex­port­ed.

The graph dis­plays the net im­ports of gaso­line and diesel (im­ports mi­nus ex­ports) as well as the to­tal ex­ports. The net im­port vol­ume cor­re­sponds to how much fu­el is sold in the do­mes­tic mar­ket.

Paria can se­cure car­goes of fu­el at more com­pet­i­tive prices than im­porters in small­er mar­kets in the rest of the Caribbean, be­cause it can pur­chase in larg­er vol­umes and lever­age its re­la­tion­ships and mar­ket po­si­tion. The com­pa­ny then makes a mar­gin on the sale of the prod­ucts to oth­er mar­kets, al­low­ing it to earn for­eign ex­change and be a prof­itable en­ter­prise.

The avail­abil­i­ty of sig­nif­i­cant tank­age in Point-a-Pierre al­so means that Paria can pur­chase fu­el when prices are low­er, store the prod­uct and sell when prices are high­er.

T&T could earn ad­di­tion­al rev­enue and for­eign ex­change from trad­ing pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts by in­creas­ing the vol­ume of stor­age tanks, de­vel­op­ing new high val­ue mar­kets (such as clean ma­rine fu­els), and the de­vel­op­ment of trad­ing floors.