Khan happy about Heritage

ENERGY Minister Franklin Khan is happy about Heritage Petroleum recording $5.4 billion in revenue and $1.4 billion in profits for the financial year ended September 20, 2019. In a newspaper advertisement, Heritage announced these figures in the summary of its audited consolidated financials up to the period ending last September. Heritage chairman Michael Quamina, in the advertisement, said last year was the first ten months of Heritage’s operation.

Khan said, “Basically what that has done, is that has vindicated the Government’s decision to restructure Petrotrin which was in a losing position of $2 billion per annum.” Saying Government was always aware that exploration and production was a profitable business, Khan said, “What Heritage has done, has focused on that.” Heritage was launched after the closure of Petrotrin in November 2018.

Khan was also pleased that Heritage has paid government taxes and royalties of $821 million over the last ten months, funded $193 million in capital expenditure and “most importantly, they have serviced all of Petrotrin’s legacy debts.” He added that “all of this was done with an entirely local staff.”

Given the current volatility with world oil prices and the covid19 pandemic, Khan said Heritage is looking at its cost structure and trying to bring it down as low as possible. He reiterated the company took a decision to store its crude oil for a period of two months and monitor the market.