Aug 2018 Financial News

Petrotrin to Exit Oil Refining; Trinidad to Import Gasoline

Aug 28, 2018

Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd, the state-owned oil company known as Petrotrin, released a statement by email:

• Will exit oil refining business and redesign its exploration and production business; restructuring aimed at curtailing losses
   
• Refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre to be shuttered; company was not producing enough oil to make refinery operations sustainable
   
• Transition to begin Oct. 1
   
• 2,600 jobs affected; 1,700 refinery jobs to be terminated
   
• Petrotrin had losses of about $8 B in last 5 years; debt of $12 B; owes government more than $3 B in taxes and royalties
   
• “With the termination of the refining operations and the redesign of Exploration and Production, Petrotrin will now be able to independently finance all of its debt and become a sustainable business”: Chairman Wilfred Espinet
   
• The company to begin importing refined products of roughly 25K barrels/day; all oil produced by the company will be exported

Source:
Bloomberg
Tuesday August 28, 2018