‘FAKE OIL’ REAL

Independent confirmation of discrepancies between reported oil production and actual production receipts, submitted by a lease operator to State-owned Petrotrin for payment, yesterday prompted the company to state publicly that it is going to take decisive action.

However, Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, who is representing the lease operator in question, told Newsday his client is entitled to the forensic audit report of Kroll Consulting Canada Company, for study by the operator’s own forensic auditors, also from Canada.

In October, an internal audit by Petrotrin revealed oil production from one of its on-land lease operators, showed remarkably high increases in oil sent to the company. It revealed Petrotrin paid $800,000 to the lease operator for oil produced between January to July, but which it did not receive at its Pointe-a-Pierre refinery.

Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar made the internal audit report public during a UNC Monday Night Forum. Petrotrin thereafter hired Kroll to review the company’s findings and conduct is own forensic analysis on the particular tank farms in question and provide data analysis. The audit was completed and last week Monday, Kroll handed in its report.

Petrotrin’s board, headed by Wilfred Espinet met on Wednesday and the report was discussed. In a media release yesterday, Petrotrin said the Kroll findings confirmed the company’s report of discrepancies.

The company said having regard to the findings, a directive has been given to its internal audit team, to widen the scope of investigations into matters dating back to 2016.

Petrotrin said the Kroll report corroborates the finding by global gas and oil consultants Gaffney Cline. In an interview earlier this week, Espinet said the board was concerned about certain issues in the Kroll report and wanted an independent forensic expert to confirm what Kroll found and hired Gaffney Cline.

The company said yesterday it was discovered, “that the reservoir was not capable of producing the volume in question.” It said after the board’s receipt and review of the Kroll and Gaffney Cline reports, its chairman has confirmed Petrotrin will be moving to take appropriate action internally and bring the matter to the attention of the relevant authorities.

“We need to ensure any claim or action we take is not impeded by a misstep. In this case, doing it right is more important than doing it quickly and so, it would be premature to articulate any specific actions at this time,” the release stated.

It reiterated that Petrotrin remains committed to maintaining a focused approach to addressing all the issues.

Responding to Petrotrin’s statement yesterday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the issue is being monitored by the Ministry of Energy and Petrotrin’s board.

“Now that this exercise has confirmed the discrepancies reported, it is now to be further expected that the board will continue to treat with any and all matters as the circumstances arise,” he said. “Petrotrin reports to the Ministry of Energy and it is expected that the ministry will be kept advised as all matters of operational accountability are reviewed.”