Petrotrin worthy of private-sector investment

TT Energy Chamber president 
Dr Thackwray Driver.
TT Energy Chamber president Dr Thackwray Driver.

THERE are parts of Petrotrin that people in the private sector will be willing to invest in, Energy Chamber president Dr Thackwray Driver believes. The key will be for the board to structure it in a way to allow for private equity interests, he added.

“We have seen private capital in Petrotrin through lease out/farm out operations and that has been successful, and it should be expanded,” Driver told Newsday in a telephone interview.

There are joint-venture opportunities or even pieces of infrastructure that can be sold to the private sector for development and then leased back to the company, he suggested, adding that he was sure the company’s board is already looking at these different options.

Driver was responding to Energy Minister Franklin Khan’s assertion on Monday that Petrotrin’s main problem was lack of capital. The company needed a major capital injection, Khan said, but it was a challenge the company continued to face.

For Driver, who agreed that capital injection was needed, what was clear is that investment had to come from the private sector. “It’s not going to come from further borrowing or a government guarantee or subvention,” Driver said.

The board of Petrotrin had an “enormous challenge ahead,” he said, as it tries to restructure the company, but the government has empowered the directors to make changes.

“We think that is excellent and something we have advocated for a long time. The board has been empowered to act as a commercial company to make commercial decisions. That is excellent to see happening, that the government is not getting involved in the day to day dealings of Petrotrin,” Driver said.

In March, the board announced a two-year restructuring plan aimed at helping the company become competitive, notably by splitting it into two streams of business, upstream and downstream. Petrotrin’s debt is over $10 billion, of which $3 billion is to the government.

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