Petrotrin needs foreign help

THE EDITOR: Firstly let me say how happy I am to be back home in TT.

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but Petrotrin continues to lose money at a fantastic rate. Why is this company persisting in persevering in failure? The PNM, NAR and UNC have all failed dismally. Some more times than the others.

Petrotrin’s continued failure is an excellent example of repeatability. The face of Petrotrin’s leadership changes with each political administration but the end point is always constant,loss. What are we doing wrong? Where are we fouling up? How can we take advantage of the opportunities for improvement?

The West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Price is US$68.57. We, and I repeat, we have failed to learn from past safety incidents. There have been multiple pipeline failures. La Brea provides exceptional examples of the above. We have had power problems.

This refinery was designed to facilitate a particular type of TT crude. Those in charge have decided in their wisdom, or lack thereof, to export the best TT crude for which Petrotrin was designed and flood the refinery with a more viscous crude. The result is inevitable.

The country cannot continue to facilitate and shoulder these massive losses. This mismanagement stops here and it stops now.

Let us do the right thing. We have proven we cannot run Petrotrin alone many times over. Bring in a foreign partner now.

AV RAMPERSAD, PRINCES TOWN