Khan: $13 billion Petrotrin debt

Energy Minister Franklin Khan yesterday said Petrotrin has a “whopping $13 billion” debt profile. He was speaking during the the budget debate in the Senate. Khan said every time he speaks about Petrotrin, “it’s not a nice story.” He said Petrotrin has gone from being a profitable company many years ago to one that is riddled with a plethora of problems. The minister said these include very limited working capital, experiencing operating losses, poor asset integrity and extremely high operating costs.

Khan said Petrotrin also has respective payments of US$850 million and US$750 million due next August and in 2022. He said Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley took charge in establishing a specialist committee to look at Petrotrin and determine the way forward for the company. Khan said that committee was chaired by the Energy Ministry’s permanent secretary Selwyn Lashley and its report would be laid in Parliament soon.

Khan said his predecessors Kevin Ramnarine and Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan were wrong to claim the 12.5 per cent royalty rate in the budget for gas, condensate and oil, was draconian. He said had they done their homework, Ramnarine and Seepersad-Bachan would have seen the royalty rate for these commodities in the United States ranges between 12.5 and 30 percent. Referring to Seepersad-Bachan’s claims, Khan said she is “fighting to lead a party.” Seepersad-Bachan and Sharon Gopaul McNicol are the only candidates vying for the post of political leader in next month’s Congress of the People (COP) internal elections.

Khan said the 12.5 percent royalty rate proposed in the budget was also a response to the “obscene” tax write-offs which the former People’s Partnership (PP) government gave to energy companies during their tenure.