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According to its website, Lake Asphalt is charged with the commercial development of the Pitch Lake of Trinidad and Tobago, the world’s largest deposit of natural asphalt.
Lake Asphalt was transferred from the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries to Works and Transport two months ago.In the 2020 Review of the Economy, Lake Asphalt reported an operating deficit of $10.2 million.The announcement was made by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at a public meeting in April.“The Cabinet has put Lake Asphalt in the Ministry of Works and has put a committee in place with Nidco acting as the operating agency to create a new business model for Lake Asphalt to make it sustainable, to make it profitable, to make it a contributor from the lake and from otherwise,” Rowley had said.“And of course to pay the workers the Ministry of Finance has to provide every three months a certain amount of millions of dollars. However, when Petrotrin was closed the Government had taken a decision to open the market and allow contractors to import it to meet their needs.To this end, bitumen can be sourced from Suriname, Barbados and Jamaica.

Want to buy some pitch (bitumen/asphalt) from the Pitch Lake?

It’s being retailed online in China, through its largest online platform, Alibaba.Local bitumen, being sold in drums, is being retailed for TT$4,286.40 to about TT$5,102.85 a drum.Labelled “Original Trinidad Lake Asphalt for road construction”, the minimum order is 20 tonnes.According to the product description it is also known as dried asphalt or Trinidad Refined Asphalt.And according to the details provided, up to 4,000 tons can be supplied a month.Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan told the Express yesterday that the Chinese company Alibaba bought the bitumen (TLA modifier) a few years ago and was now reselling it at a “mark-up”.

Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan told the Express yesterday that the Chinese company Alibaba bought the bitumen (TLA modifier) a few years ago and was now reselling it at a “mark-up”.Asked why this idea wasn’t one being pursued by Lake Asphalt itself to market its products he responded: “The process to use it in its present form is very challenging that is why we are looking at different ways to produce it for export.”
He explained that bitumen is used on the country’s highways but not its secondary roads. He said at present the demand is not good for bitumen.
The Lake Asphalt company, whose sole product is the sale of bitumen, is functioning on a monthly subvention of $2.5 million from the Ministry of Works and Transport.

For the second time in more than a week, Lake Asphalt Ltd workers staged a protest demanding that their issues on the job be addressed, including the payment of outstanding salaries.Wearing yellow, the colour of their union, the workers kicked off the march from the Point D'or junction in La Brea Saturday morning.Workers led by Contractors and General Workers Trade Union (CGWTU) president general Ermine De Bique-Meade protested in front of the Works and Transport Ministry in Port-of-Spain on June 24.

De Bique-Meade said monthly-paid workers did not receive their salaries for two months, while weekly paid workers were not paid for five weeks.
Following the first protest, she said two cheques covering two months' salaries for the workers were subsequently released, but the workers cannot continue to work under these conditions.
 "These workers' pension plan contribution has not been paid for over a year. Their NIS contribution which is being deducted from their salaries is not being remitted to the National Insurance board. We hear the Minister of Finance coming on the television and indicating that the national insurance has a shortage as it relates to the collection of contributions, but here the Government is not paying these workers and, by extension, management is not paying the money deducted from the workers into the National Insurance Board," she complained.

An Opposition-led press conference was almost washed away today, after parts of the San Francique roadway collapsed, causing water to run off onto the surface of the road, and through the spot where the press conference was being held. According to the MP and residents in the area, the largest pothole the country has seen could be found in San Francique.

At the time, Member of Parliament for Oropouche West, Davendranath Tancoo MP, was leading a press conference in the middle of the road to highlight the deplorable conditions along Pluck Road in San Francique, because of landslides in the area.MP Tancoo said vehicles have stopped accessing the road because it is now impassable to all but pedestrian traffic.