Seepersad-Bachan: Bankruptcy will hurt energy sector

Former Energy Minister Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan has described statements by Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet that the company is exploring all options, including bankruptcy, as "unfortunate.”

She was critical of "the approach that Mr Espinet and the board and the government would like to take. Instead of trying to get a meeting of minds, trying to get the stakeholders, including members of management, retired members of management and members of the union – this is a fixable problem, there are a number of doable and implementable improvement measures and if properly instituted, I am sure we can salvage this situation.”

The Petrotrin chairman was interviewed after the Industrial Court granted an injunction brought by the union effectively halting the termination of the company’s workforce.

Seepersad-Bachan said this approach would damage the image of TT’s energy sector.

“I am against the closure of the refinery, because I believe there are wider economic implications. I am of the view that all those parties must come together, I find it very unfortunate that they would take that approach to declare bankruptcy, and that would hurt the image of the energy sector of TT.