El Socorro gets new NP station

TYRELL GITTENS

THE National Petroleum Marketing Company (NP) opened its newest service station in El Socorro on Wednesday. Speaking at the station’s opening, NP chairman Sahid Hosein said, “This station will cater to the scores of businesses in the area and convieniently service countless commuters along the Churchill Roosevelt Highway.”

According to Hosein, the station’s opening is the first of many to come as he said, “NP is earmarked to open service stations in O’Meara Road Arima, Sangre Grande, Mayaro, Cashew Gardens and Preysal. He also took the opportunity to highlight that over 40 service stations have been refurbished to the tune of $63 million dollars, a figure he calls a “reinvestment into the national economy.”

Though he did not provide an exact figure for the construction of the El Socorro service station he said, “NP contributes to the national economy through significant investments which are made in the construction of new service stations,” highlighting that each service station costs between 10 and 15 million dollars.

Present at the event was Energy Minister Franklin Khan. While taking the opportunity to commend NP on its modern and state of the art service stations Khan said, “There are just simply not enough and they are poorly distributed.”

The statement came as he highlighted what he sees as the lack of proper service stations in rural areas. As he listed underserved communities including: Toco, Mayaro, Talparo, Todds Road and Cedros he said, “Some policy decision has to take place to facilitate rural service stations.”

“You cannot expect a citizen of this country to drive 20 miles to fill up his gas tank.” Khan said there is a need for proper policy and planning to assist with this issue.

General manager of the new El Socorro service station Michael Baiz said, “This will be part of a larger development which will include 3 Point Plaza.” The plaza will be located to the eastern side of the new service station which is approximately 72,900 sqaure feet and operates on a 24/7 basis. The plaza’s construction will begin in the first quarter of 2020.