Roget: Scrap lease/farmout programme

YVONNE WEBB

Workers at the Santa Flora branch of Petrotrin, on Thursday, resolved to fight to the bitter end to defend the state-owned oil company from being placed in private hands.

In spite of a denial from Energy Minister Franklin Khan that the company is to be privatised, president general of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) Ancel Roget insisted that government plans to take away workers’ jobs and put Petrotrin into private hands.

He said some of the 12,000 viable wells, stretching from Point Fortin all the way to Guayaguayare and taking in fields such as Cats Hill, Barrackpore, Forest Reserve, Grand Ravine, Palo Seco, Santa Flora and Penal, have already been placed in private hands. He called on government to scrap the Lease Operator and Farmout Programme and allow Petrotrin to produce its own oil.