BPTT

Cassia C is BPTT’s next platform and part of the the Cassia Compression development, which will access one trillion cubic feet of hydrocarbon resources.

The jacket and bridge are currently being fabricated at TOFCO while the topsides and bridge link are being constructed in Altamira, Mexico. The Cassia Compression development will enable BPTT to access and produce low pressure gas reserves from currently-producing fields in the Greater Cassia Area, maximising recovery from these existing resources, the company said in a release Friday.

The project was sanctioned in 2018 and is expected to come online in 2021. McDermott International is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider for the project. Both the jacket and topside are on schedule.

The Cassia C jacket is the latest of BPTT’s infrastructure to be fabricated at TOFCO. Six out of BPTT’s 15 offshore platforms were constructed at TOFCO. Including Cassia C, this represents about US$350 million of investment.

The Prime Minister visited the TOFCO fabrication yard in La Brea with BPTT team, led by regional president Claire Fitzpatrick, to view fabrication of the jacket and bridge landing for the company’s Cassia C project.

Fitzpatrick said, “That is something that we at BPTT are proud of and I believe that it is something everyone at TOFCO should be proud of as well. This demonstrates our commitment to local content and developing local capability. We value our partnership with McDermott and TOFCO and see it as one of the industry’s real success stories.”

The Cassia Compression project fits into BPTT’s Area Development plan which outlines the direction and pace of the company’s activities to develop its resources in the Columbus Basin. The plan includes a combination of exploration, development projects and activities focused on maximising production from existing fields.

Fitzpatrick said there was increasing competition to access funding for projects and therefore local fabrication must remain competitive.

“The key to continued development and success of the local fabrication industry is continued investment in developing skills and focusing on the productivity of the workforce. Trinidad has had a good track record and can capitalise on other opportunities by focusing on being globally competitive.”

Trinity Exploration & Production plc

Q2 2019 Operational Update

Steady production, strong cash growth and first 2019 new infill well imminent

• Trinity Exploration & Production plc (AIM: TRIN), the independent E&P company focused on Trinidad and Tobago, today provides an update on its operations for the three-month period ended 30 June 2019 (“Q2 2019” or “the period”).
• Production volumes over the quarter were successfully maintained across our assets at an average of 2,996 bopd, in line with expectations. Production is expected to rise in the second half of the year with the resumption of onshore drilling. Drilling of the first new infill well of the 2019 campaign is expected to commence at the WD-2 asset on 18 July 2019. Thisfirst phase of the 2019 drilling campaign, which is currently expected to comprise up to eight new wells, will also include the first High Angle Well (“HAW”), FR 996.
• During the period, the Company continued to control its operating costs and capital expenditures carefully.
  As a consequence, unaudited cash balances increased to US$ 17.8 million as at 30 June 2019 – up from US$ 12.3 million at the end of Q1.

 

Q2 Operational Highlights

• Group average production volumes were 2,996 bopd for the period (Q1 2019: 3,020 bopd)
•  8.6% increase in year-on-year Group production for H1 2019 with average production of 3,008 bopd (H1 2018: 2,771 bopd)
•  2019 drilling programme has now commenced with the rig mobilised and the first well due to spud on 18 July 2019
• Contingent upon the prevailing oil price environment, and subsequent investment, net average production for 2019 is expected to be in the range of 3,000 – 3,300 bopd, consistent with the guidance issued at the time of the 2018 final results

Q2 Financial Highlights

•  Cash balance of US$17.8 million (unaudited) as at 30 June 2019 (31 March 2018: S$12.3 million)
• Hedging Update: Trinity has taken advantage of recent oil price strength to put in place an initial layer of hedging to help mitigate the impact of Supplementary Petroleum Taxes (“SPT”). The hedging is designed to protect a portion of Group cash flows between US$ 50.0 – US$ 55.0/bbl thereby partially offsetting the impact of SPT whilst
  retaining upside exposure to rising oil prices over the majority of production.
• The hedges comprise a six month put spread with a WTI price floor of US$ 50.0/bbl and a cap of US$ 55.0/bbl covering 12,500 barrels per month and a twelve month put spread with a WTI price floor of US$ 50.0/bbl and a cap of US$ 55.0/bbl with a US$
  64.40 strike price call covering a further 12,500 barrels per month. Further such layers may be implemented in H2 2019, depending on market conditions.

Outlook

• The second half of the year is expected to be extremely active for the Company with the recommencement of the onshore drilling programme. With the Group’s ongoing and continued focus on controlling costs and development of its assets, it remains well placed to provide significant upside to shareholders both in terms of production and returns.
• Within the H2 drilling campaign the Company will be drilling its first HAW, the FR 996 well. This well is the first of a series of HAW wells that the Group expects to drill and complete in the near term. Although not commonly deployed onshore in Trinidad, HAWs are now the industry standard in many basins around the world and have been modelled by the Company to yield initial production rates and reserves of more than 2x those achieved from conventional vertical wells.
• The Group’s focus for the medium term continues to be delivering the first phase of the TGAL development, which has the potential to deliver standalone peak production rates in the range of 5,000 – 6,000 bopd. As the TGAL project matures, discussions on the project, and on the Galeota licence as a whole, are generating good traction and momentum with the supply chain, the regulators and with Heritage, the Group’s partner.
• The Company continues to work hard on all facets of its business by maintaining close attention to base production, growing production through new infill drilling, progressing the TGAL development, and being well positioned to capitalise on the changing local market.
• The Company will announce its interim results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2019 in early September. This announcement will provide further detail on production, margins, operating break-even, costs and profitability – highlighting the growing value of the Company’s assets and continued strong financial performance.

Bruce Dingwall CBE, Executive Chairman of Trinity, commented:

“Our strong balance sheet and robust base production mean that we are delivering our financial and production targets, and at the same time, ensuring that we can take advantage of any strategic opportunities that may arise. We remain focused on maximising output and returns for shareholders and continue to evaluate the best ways of protecting and enhancing those returns through prudent treasury management, industry leading operating practices and technical innovation. Given the strength of our business model, the ongoing work programme and visibility afforded by our balance sheet, we continue to face the future with confidence.“

Enquiries
For further information please visit www.trinityexploration.com or contact:
Trinity Exploration & Production plc +44 (0)131 240 3860
Bruce Dingwall CBE, Executive Chairman
Jeremy Bridglalsingh, Chief Financial Officer
Tracy Mackenzie, Corporate Development Manager
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (Nominated Adviser and Financial Adviser)

+44 (0)20 3368 3550

Mark Brady
Miriam Greenwood
Andrew Emmott
Cenkos Securities PLC (Broker)

Joe Nally (Corporate Broking)
Neil McDonald
Beth McKiernan
Derrick Lee
Pete Lynch

+44 (0)20 7397 8900
+44 (0)131 220 6939

Whitman Howard Limited (Equity Adviser) +44 (0)20 7659 1234
Nick Lovering
Hugh Rich
Walbrook PR Limited +44 (0)20 7933 8780
Nick Rome trinityexploration@walbrookpr.com
About Trinity (www.trinityexploration.com)
Trinity is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company focused solely on Trinidad and  Tobago. Trinity operates producing and development assets both onshore and offshore, in the shallow water West and East Coasts of Trinidad. Trinity’s portfolio includes current production, significant near-term production growth opportunities from low risk developments and multiple exploration prospects with the
potential to deliver meaningful reserves/resources growth.

The Company operates all of its nine licences and, across all of the Group’s assets, management’s estimate of 2P reserves as at the end of 2018 was 24.5 mmbbls.
Group 2C contingent resources are estimated to be 18.8 mmbbls.

The Group’s overall 2P plus 2C volumes are therefore 43.3 mmbbls.
Trinity is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker TRIN.

Nutrien of Canada boosts investment

Nu­trien of Cana­da is the world’s largest provider of crop in­puts and ser­vices with op­er­a­tions and in­vest­ments in 14 coun­tries. The fer­til­iz­er com­pa­ny in­ten­ds to expand in­vest­ment in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The com­mit­ment came at a meet­ing of the com­pa­ny’s ex­ec­u­tives and prime min­is­ter . The com­pa­ny will ex­e­cute a mul­ti­mil­lion-dol­lar plant up­grade as it con­tin­ues to po­si­tion it­self as a ma­jor play­er in the lo­cal hy­dro­car­bon in­dus­try. Nu­trien re­ceived an up­date on work com­plet­ed in the lo­cal en­er­gy sec­tor to se­cure the vi­a­bil­i­ty of the gas up­stream and down­stream in­dus­try. Both par­ties re­it­er­at­ed their cooperation and build­ing a strong mu­tu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial. part­ner­ship.

Nu­trien Trinidad, for­mer­ly PCS Ni­tro­gen Trinidad Lim­it­ed, is the coun­try’s largest am­mo­nia pro­duc­er and one of the largest ni­tro­gen man­u­fac­tur­ing com­plex­es in the world. The busi­ness in Trinidad and To­ba­go ac­counts for more than 35% of its glob­al pro­duc­tion port­fo­lio.

Chuck Ma­gro, pres­i­dent and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Raef Sul­ly, ex­ec­u­tive vice-pres­i­dent and CEO of Ni­tro­gen & Phos­phate and Ian Welch, di­rec­tor of Nu­trien Trinidad, rep­re­sent­ed the com­pa­ny.

 

BREAKING NEWS

ECO SENDS BEST WISHES TO HERITAGE CEO MIKE WILEY FOR A RAPID RECOVERY

Committee to man­age Heritage

Gov­ern­ment con­firmed that Her­itage Petroleum Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Mike Wi­ley, re­cov­er­ing from ma­jor surgery, has been ad­vised by doc­tors not to trav­el to Trinidad un­til treat­ment is com­plete. Wi­ley has been out of the coun­try for the last two months fol­low­ing di­ag­no­sis of ill­ness but sources say his prog­no­sis looks good and he is work­ing from home in Texas.

Board mem­ber Nigel Camp­bell has been act­ing CEO but the board agreed that a com­mit­tee in­clud­ing se­nior man­age­ment, board mem­bers and Wi­ley would over­see op­er­a­tions. The di­rec­tive for the ap­point­ment of the com­mit­tee is ex­pect­ed short­ly.

Wi­ley, who has decades of ex­pe­ri­ence in the in­ter­na­tion­al oil and gas sec­tor, was hired as CEO of Her­itage the com­pa­ny that adopted the ex­plo­ration and pro­duc­tion business of Petrotrin. Wi­ley said his man­date was to get Her­itage to the Top 25 in­ter­na­tion­al com­peti­tor lev­el (from Petrotrin’s bot­tom 25 rank­ing) and en­sure ex­plo­ra­tion and pro­duc­tion (E&P) dri­ves the re­struc­tured en­ti­ty as the Gov­ern­ment plans.

With gov­ern­ment tight-lipped on the is­sue, Her­itage Chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet ignored calls.

Op­po­si­tion spokesman on en­er­gy David Lee de­mand­ed that the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy and the Board of Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings Lim­it­ed (TPHL) ac­count for the ab­sence of the CEO.

BREAKING NEWS

Espinet replaced at TPHL, Wylie loses Heritage job
The Energy and Finance ministers announced that be­cause of the ill­ness of the CEO Mike Wylie, the new Her­itage board was man­dat­ed to find a re­place­ment CEO .

Wil­fred Es­pinet, who su­per­vised Petrotrin’s tran­si­tion and chaired suc­ces­sor com­pa­nies’ boards was also replaced by At­tor­ney Michael Quam­i­na as chair of Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings Com­pa­ny Ltd and Petrotrin Lega­cy Com­pa­ny. New­man George will chair­ Paria and Guaracara.

Few peo­ple could have re­struc­tur­ed the com­pa­ny and se­cur­ied the fi­nanc­ing of the (US)$850 mil­lion bond but the re­struc­tur­ing is more or less com­plete and the company is now mov­ing to op­er­a­tions to get oil pro­duc­tion up to improve the sov­er­eign cred­it rat­ing.

Es­pinet in a memo to Her­itage stood by Wylie who need­ed to be part of the team be­cause of his abil­i­ty to dri­ve Her­itage for­ward. Es­pinet said fir­ing Wylie would be more time con­sum­ing and cost­ly than al­low­ing him six months to re­cu­per­ate.Wylie has a three-year con­tract with re­mu­ner­a­tion of US$450,000 an­nu­al­ly – about TT$240,000 month­ly- plus hous­ing, trans­porta­tion and health perks.Her­itage posted a sub­stan­tial prof­it.

OWTU noted Espinet sacked 50,000 work­ers .

Cronyism and nepotism angered UNC critics who questioned Espinet’s re­place­ment by at­tor­ney Michael Quam­i­na, an as­so­ciate of the prime min­is­ter whom he represents in ongoing “fake oil” investigations, lacking en­er­gy ex­pe­ri­ence.

UNC said they had no con­fi­dence in the en­er­gy sec­tor with New­man George chairing en­er­gy com­pa­nies, as the hus­band of the House Speak­er and chairman of the HDC when allegations were raised against then housing minister, Marlene McDonald, now on bail.

The new boards are-

TPHL – Michael Quam­i­na (chair­man), Reynold Ad­jod­has­ingh (deputy), New­man George, An­tho­ny Chan Tack, Joel Hard­ing, Sel­wyn Lash­ley, Eu­stace Nan­cis.

HER­ITAGE – Michael Quam­i­na (chair­man), New­man George (deputy) Reynold Ad­jod­has­ingh, Sel­wyn Lash­ley, Joel Hard­ing, Ryan To­by, George Leonard Lewis, Pe­ter Clarke, Reeza Saleem.

PARIA – New­man George (chair­man), Eu­stance Nan­cis, Chris­tine Sa­hadeo, Pe­ter Clarke, Reeza Saleem.

GUARACARA – New­man George (chair­man), An­tho­ny Chan Tack, Pe­ter Clarke, Chris­tine Sa­hadeo.

Shell hires Deep Down

Shell Trinidad and Tobago ordered umbilical support services from Houston-based oilfield services company Deep Down on the Poinsettia platform located off the northwest coast of Trinidad in 530 feet of water. The order is for the design, fabrication, project management and installation support for an umbilical repair/replacement package to restore communications to the Poinsettia Deep Well offshore. Operations will likely occur in the first quarter of 2020.

Ron Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Deep Down, Inc. stated, “This award further highlights the success of our efforts to continue expanding our customer base internationally, especially in the provision of inspection, maintenance and repair solutions.”

VAT exemption for Paria

The Fi­nance Min­is­ter con­firmed exemption of SEC Paria Fu­els Trad­ing from $382 mil­lion in Val­ue Added Tax by Gov­ern­ment on fu­el m­port­s, in an ef­fort to as­sist the com­pa­ny with its cash flow. He said there is no re­la­tion­ship be­tween VAT on im­port­ed fu­el and on VAT be­ing paid at the pump.

Mo­torists paying 12.5 per cent VAT at the pump will not ben­e­fit from the de­ci­sion by the Min­istry of Fi­nance to al­low Paria a waiver on VAT.

A let­ter to Paria Fu­el Chair­man Wil­fred Es­pinet stated

“In May, 2019 the gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go agreed that in ac­cor­dance with the pro­vi­sion of sec­tion 55 (2) of the Val­ue Added Tax Act Chap 75:06, which ap­plies Sec­tion 124 of the In­come Tax Act, Chap 75:01, to re­mis­sion to VAT Act in the sum, $382,499,481,83 on car­goes of re­fined pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts im­port­ed by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed as at April 30th 2019.”

Gov­ern­ment VAT is due on all Paria im­ports, in­clud­ing fu­el bought to re­sell re­gion­al­ly. How­ev­er the re­gion­al mar­kets do not at­tract VAT and it takes time for the Min­istry to re­im­burse Paria . There­fore it is try­ing to avoid pay­ing VAT on the im­port­ed fu­el in ad­vance.

“The re­quest was not for Paria to be ex­empt from pay­ing Val­ue Added Tax, but rather for the com­pa­ny not to have to pay VAT on im­ports in ad­vance. This was hav­ing a neg­a­tive im­pact on the com­pa­ny’s cash flow, as the com­pa­ny then had to… re­claim the mon­ey from the Gov­ern­ment as VAT on ex­port sales is ze­ro-rat­ed. For lo­cal sales, Paria col­lects VAT on its re­ceipts and re­mits this to the Gov­ern­ment.”

Op­po­si­tion leader Kam­la Per­sad Bisses­sar al­leged that fu­el prices will rise and there will be short­ages at the pump be­cause the Chair­man ad­mit­ted that it was a night­mare find­ing US $20 mil­lion a month in the bank­ing sys­tem to buy fu­el.

“There is a sub­stan­tial short­fall be­tween the amount of for­eign ex­change earned by Her­itage and the amount need­ed to im­port fu­els each month by Paria. Ap­prox­i­mate­ly US$20 mil­lion a month is ac­cessed through the lo­cal bank­ing sys­tem. The process of find­ing a sup­ply (of USD) in time to meet pay­ment sched­ules is ex­treme­ly chal­leng­ing. My un­der­stand­ing is that there is no reg­u­la­tion in force that will al­low for­eign ex­change to be di­rect­ed to these im­ports on a pri­or­i­ty ba­sis. As a con­se­quence, car­go of­ten ar­rives in Trinidad and de­lays in pay­ments for the ship­ment re­sults in sig­nif­i­cant de­mur­rage that has to be ab­sorbed by the com­pa­ny. While we seek to find a source for the for­eign ex­change short­fall, this im­bal­ance is struc­tur­al. The ul­ti­mate so­lu­tion is to in­tro­duce poli­cies to en­cour­age a more pru­dent ap­proach to fu­el con­sump­tion. This is con­sis­tent with oblig­a­tions re­strict­ing our emis­sions.”

In Jan­u­ary the Chair­man urged the gov­ern­ment to pay bills on time. The Min­is­ter said that the mat­ter did not arise since the gov­ern­ment was not at the time ow­ing Paria mon­ey. How­ev­er, the time frame of ex­emption proves Gov­ern­ment own­ed Paria VAT re­funds in Jan­u­ary.

BHP growing gas resource offshore

Australian major BHP expects to take an investment decision later this year on the Ruby gas project off Trinidad and Tobago, the company said in its latest results statement.

Scoring a hat – trick, BHP completed Phase 3 of its deepwater drilling campaign around the islands: the Bélé-1, Tuk-1, and Hi-Hat-1 exploratory wells in the Northern licenses all encountered gas, confirming additional volumes around the Bongos discovery.

Technical work is under way to assess further exploration targets and commercial options for the Northern gas play. These discoveries mark seven successful exploration wells out of nine drilled offshore Trinidad over the course of the fiscal year. BHP is the operator of the new Pliocene-era gas wells, owning a 70% stake in each.

The company spudded the deepwater Trion-3DEL appraisal well offshore Mexico, the main aims being to further delineate the scale and characterization of the field.

In Australia, as part of the North West Shelf Joint Venture, BHP participated in the Achernar-1 exploration to fulfil a well commitment on the WA-28-P exploration permit. However, this was a dry hole. The Bass Strait West Barracouta offshore project is tracking to plan.

Trinity and Weatherford International conduct first ForeSite trial

Trinity Exploration & Production, the independent E&P company focused on Trinidad and Tobago, entered into a partnership with Weatherford International to pilot the use of Weatherford’s ForeSite® Production Optimization Production 4.0 platform (Software and Automation) to maximise returns from the Company’s onshore wells. This initiative is the first instance where technology of this kind has been deployed in onshore oil producing acreage of Trinidad.

Weatherford’s ForeSite Production Optimization Production 4.0 platform provides software and optimization technology for real time pump monitoring and optimization and has been deployed on both progressive cavity and sucker rod pumps. This state-of-the-art technology combines proven Weatherford production optimisation technologies with the Internet of Things, cloud computing and advanced analytics.

By providing support for a broad array of production methods and the ability to optimise an asset from well to surface facility, the ForeSite platform will enable Trinity to identify and prioritise production optimisation opportunities. The solution includes Weatherford’s industry leading Flow Control Technology (FCT) and ForeSite Edge technologies at the well head and works in conjunction with ForeSite Production Optimization software to provide a complete well head to desktop solution.

The results of the pilot will be assessed to understand the level of improved efficiency and the impact of optimisation technologies on maximising asset value in respect of the pilot wells.

If deemed successful, Trinity aims to utilise continuous production optimisation in order to reduce operating costs and increase reserves and production from individual wells. The Directors anticipate that the cumulative effect of extending this technology and approach across the Company’s assets will enable it to maximise economic returns for the Company.

Bruce Dingwall CBE, Executive Chairman of Trinity, commented:

‘As a technically and commercially driven production company, we are highly focused on maximising returns from our assets. As such, we believe that with this exciting new technology application and continuous data measurement and capture we would be able to optimise lift efficiency on key wells, reduce downtime and enhance productivity.

‘This system has the potential to assist in our decision-making and planning process as we focus on achieving our production targets. We are proud to be the first company to use this technology onshore in Trinidad and believe that it will enable us to protect and grow base production. When you couple this state-of-the-art measurement and production optimisation alongside the Company’s ambitious plans to drill the first onshore High Angle Well in Trinidad, as part of the Company’s 2019 drilling campaign, it is clear Trinity is a technical leader in its field.

‘We really have enjoyed the close working relationship that we have developed with the Weatherford team and we look forward to working with them in further digitising and optimising our production operations.’

Manoj Nimbalkar, Vice President, Production Automation and Software for Weatherford, commented:

‘We are proud to collaborate with Trinity in their production optimisation goals. As the industry’s only enterprise-level optimisation platform from the wellbore to point of sale, ForeSite Production Optimization software transforms historical trending, real-time data, and physics-based models into an intuitive and visual interface. The deployment of ForeSite production optimization ecosystem will empower Trinity’s team to make decisions that improve production, reduce operating costs and enhance personnel efficiency.’

Source: Trinity Exploration

Trinidad Petroleum and NGC

Is there a short­age of fu­el?          Will there be an in­crease in the price of fu­el?

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar raised these ques­tions at the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress in Fyz­abad based on a doc­u­ment left in her mail­box. The let­ter by chair­man of Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um Hold­ings Lim­it­ed Wil­fred Es­pinet to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan was about a month­ly short­fall of US$20 mil­lion to pur­chase re­fined fu­el to sup­ply the coun­try.

Paria Fu­el Trad­ing, one of four com­pa­nies which re­placed Petrotrin, was es­tab­lished to buy fu­el on the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket for sale to NP and Unipet. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the com­pa­ny is in se­ri­ous fi­nan­cial trou­ble. “This pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant threat to the sup­ply of fu­el to the na­tion.” .

The UNC leader ac­cused the PNM of caus­ing Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny’s fi­nan­cial woes. She read from a Trinidad Pe­tro­le­um let­ter dat­ed June 7s at Fyz­abad: “What this let­ter tells us is that we are in for some se­ri­ous trou­ble with re­spect to the sup­ply of fu­el.”

In the let­ter, Es­pinet lists some of the key im­me­di­ate risks, in­clud­ing the on­go­ing short­fall of US$20 mil­lion a month to pur­chase re­fined fu­els. Per­sad-Bisses­sar de­scribed this as “a struc­tur­al prob­lem that is go­ing to re­sult in a short­age of fu­els un­less cor­rect­ed.That is not los­ing mon­ey that is haem­or­rhag­ing mon­ey . . . Does this mean that they will in­crease the price of fu­el at the pumps for you? What­ev­er it means, it is clear as day that Paria Fu­el Trad­ing, the com­pa­ny with the sole re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for im­port­ing this coun­try’s fu­el—su­per, diesel, pre­mi­um, kerosene and jet fu­el—is in big trou­ble.”

A sec­ond im­me­di­ate risk is “the fail­ure to im­ple­ment ex-ter­mi­nal pric­ing for im­port­ed fu­el, de­spite the com­pa­ny and Min­is­ter of En­er­gy hav­ing de­vel­oped a for­mu­la since No­vem­ber 2018.”

This was the rea­son for the rush in Par­lia­ment to pass amend­ments to the Pe­tro­le­um Act and Pe­tro­le­um Pro­duc­tion Sub­sidy and Levy Act. That should have been done last year when Petrotrin was shut down and they start­ed im­port­ing fu­el. “That has to be the height of neg­li­gence on the part of the Min­is­ter of En­er­gy.”

Es­pinet high­light­ed in­abil­i­ty to se­cure let­ters from the min­istry and the Board of In­land Rev­enue to close the 2018 year-end au­dit and fi­nalise long term fi­nanc­ing. Re­quests for these let­ters have been pur­sued dai­ly for months. Petrotrin can­not pub­lish fi­nan­cial re­ports for 2018 be­cause of out­stand­ing is­sues re­gard­ing roy­al­ty pay­ments to the Min­istry and tax­es owed.

She ques­tioned the over­all cost of re­fi­nanc­ing Petrotrin’s US$850 mil­lion bond debt and the closure, the biggest eco­nom­ic tragedy in the coun­try’s his­to­ry. , Per­sad-Bisses­sar said a UNC gov­ern­ment would re­con­sol­i­date Petrotrin as a ful­ly rein­te­grat­ed com­pa­ny and kick start the re­fin­ery. The Prime Min­is­ter and the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter “… got to­tal­ly out­smart­ed” in Hous­ton to meet ma­jor gas com­pa­nies. “The end re­sult is that NGC now has to pay a lot more to buy nat­ur­al gas and sell at a low­er price … be­cause the price they ne­go­ti­at­ed was too high. NGC now is in se­ri­ous trou­ble” be­cause of po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence. This could be one rea­son why the chair­man re­signed.

Foreign policy

The UNC MP for Naparima accused the Prime Minister of being “devoid from reality” as he attacked the regime’s diplomacy and foreign policies. “The ceaseless barrage of cases in which TT has been given a negative image on the international platform is testament, to any sensible onlooker, that .. foreign policy, or lack thereof, under the PNM is nothing short of an absolute failure.”

He accused Rowley of “pavement diplomacy” by chastising and insulting diplomats from key trading partners, pointing to the recent scolding of US officials. This was possibly why the US was now using Jamaica as a major transhipment point for the CARICOM energy market.

“Regional news reports indicate that Petrojam Limited, of Jamaica, is now supplying the Barbados National Terminal Company Ltd with oil following the closure of Petrotrin. And that the “BNTCL chairman, Alex McDonald said the deal is far more competitive than the previous with Petrotrin.”

The Government failed to mount effective responses to international travel bulletins warning visitors about high crime rates.

“Multiple travel advisories warn potential tourists that: Shootings, kidnappings and other gang and drug related violence occur,’ and that ‘there is a risk of you being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their foreign policy inadequacies are made manifest daily. Foreign policy ought to be an extension on the global arena of our domestic realities and circumstances. Is this the image we want in the international arena?”

Wth a US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2019 ranking at Tier 2, after a two-week Venezuelan registration process, the country has an unknown number who did not register living and working under the radar.

“This registration policy is just another example of poor planning. There were so many unanswered questions concerning the process. The UNC has called from day one for a well thought out refugee policy that is humane and based on best practices.”

The former ambassador said experts warned of an epidemic of diseases on an unprecedented scale in Latin America and Venezuelans are bringing malaria into the countries they flee to.

“Time and time again this Government proves unable to increase the standard of TT’s international business footprint. … the insufficient policy from this inept PNM administration is among the factors responsible for Moody’s Investors Service downgrade of TT in response to the decline of the energy sector.

“The latest in the string of the PNM’s incompetence is that after four years of not attending UN General Assembly meetings, the Prime Minister has now seen it fit to express an interest in attending this year’s meeting to highlight TT’s issues. Their entire approach has simply been ‘too little too late. TT deserves a Government that does not portray its mediocrity as a triumph.”

Rating Agencies

Moody’s Good news

International ratings agency Moody’s expressed optimism for TT’s economic outlook:

“Moody’s today published an in-depth statement that TT’s credit profile will benefit from improved prospects from higher energy production, moderate fiscal deficits and large financial buffers.”

The FINANCE Minister said that Moody’s indicated in its statement that “Government has been effective in restructuring Petrotrin.”

Het criticised financial “gurus” who claimed Standard and Poor’s (S&P) latest economic outlook for TT was bad news. “We have to walk before we can run.” S&P had lowered TT’s credit rating by one level from BBB+ to BBB and upgraded the outlook from negative to stable. BBB is still an investment grade rating but TT is still two levels into the S&P investment scale grade.

The ratings reflected a solid level of government financial assets that “mitigate the effect of economic performance cycles on TT’s fiscal and external performance.” A former minister and economist Dr Vaalmiki Arjoon did not share optimism about the S&P outlook.

In Ch­agua­nas Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar asked whether the In­ter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund (IMF) was in­vit­ed for its an­nu­al Ar­ti­cle IV re­view. Per­sad-Bisses­sar ques­tioned whether the Fi­nance Min­is­ter was afraid of what an IMF re­view will re­veal. , “S&P down­grad­ed T&T from BBB+ to BBB and be­fore that Moody’s down­grad­ed us. …Where is the IMF Ar­ti­cle IV en­quiry? We are in the month of Ju­ly and by now, the IMF would be here con­duct­ing their Ar­ti­cle IV re­view and then they would present their re­ports on the sta­tus of our coun­try.” The IMF have been com­ing for an­nu­al re­views for “don­key years.” The re­view was crit­i­cal to chart the way for­ward as there have too many pub­lic re­la­tions “spins” on bad rat­ings. “The Ar­ti­cle IV re­view is go­ing to help us as we plan for­ward what needs to be done.”

In its World Eco­nom­ic Out­look in April, the IMF pro­ject­ed ze­ro per cent growth for T&T in 2019.

Growth for 2018 was y 0.03 per cent.

The Fi­nance Min­is­ter said fi­nan­cial “gu­rus” should ad­mit that T&T is still in­vest­ment grade. Moody’s in-depth state­ment advised that this coun­try’s cred­it pro­file “will ben­e­fit from im­proved growth prospects from high­er en­er­gy pro­duc­tion, mod­er­ate fis­cal deficits and large fi­nan­cial buffers and the gov­ern­ment has been ef­fec­tive in re­struc­tur­ing Petrotrin.”

Standard and Poor’s

Trinidad and To­ba­go suf­fered a down­grade in its sov­er­eign rat­ings from cred­it rat­ing agency Stan­dard and Poor’s.

In its up­date, S&P said the de­ci­sion to down­grade was based on low­er-than-ex­pect­ed en­er­gy pro­duc­tion and eco­nom­ic growth which it ex­pects to weak­en the gov­ern­ment’s rev­enue base and de­lay its plans to bal­ance the bud­get by fis­cal year 2020-2021. “At the same time, in­sti­tu­tion­al re­forms to strength­en rev­enue col­lec­tion and im­prove the pro­vi­sion of time­ly eco­nom­ic da­ta have tak­en longer than ex­pect­ed, and we do not ex­pect to see ma­te­r­i­al div­i­dends from these re­forms in the near term.”

These fac­tors weak­en the re­silience against ex­ter­nal shocks.

“As a re­sult, we are low­er­ing our long-term for­eign and lo­cal cur­ren­cy sov­er­eign cred­it rat­ings on Trinidad and To­ba­go to ‘BBB’ from ‘BBB+’ and are af­firm­ing our short-term for­eign and lo­cal cur­ren­cy sov­er­eign cred­it rat­ings at ‘A-2’.”

It was al­so re­vis­ing down its trans­fer and con­vert­ibil­i­ty as­sess­ment to ‘BBB+’ from ‘A’.

After the 7-island archipelago was down­grad­ed by in­ter­na­tion­al cred­it rat­ing agency Stan­dard and Poor’s, the Prime Min­is­ter claims that its busi­ness and its fu­ture are in good hands while rat­ed as an in­vest­ment grade but it remains in se­ri­ous dif­fi­cul­ty.

The gov­ern­ment was “not on that wave­length” and was do­ing every­thing to en­sure the sit­u­a­tion did not ma­te­ri­alise. Not­ing re­cent mis­sions to all the ma­jor en­er­gy play­ers, he said, “That trip was to make sure that this pre­dic­tion of a re­duc­tion in gas pro­duc­tion does not come to pass.” Stan­dard and Poor’s is al­so pre­dict­ing a loss in oil pro­duc­tion but shut­tered Petrotrin drilling ze­ro wells evolved into its suc­ces­sor Her­itage now drilling 16-18 wells. “That pre­dic­tion will not come to pass.“

The rat­ing agency up­grad­ed its out­look from neg­a­tive to sta­ble. “The rea­son for this is our favourable ex­ter­nal pro­file and our sta­ble democ­ra­cy. They al­so say it re­flects on the coun­try’s sol­id lev­el of Gov­ern­ment fi­nan­cial as­sets and good fis­cal and ex­ter­nal per­for­mance,” Row­ley said. Gov­ern­ment’s “un­pleas­ant” as­sign­ment, is to run the coun­try on $10 bil­lion less in in­come. “Any gov­ern­ment that is not pre­pared to take the hard de­ci­sions for the peo­ple’s in­ter­est is a gov­ern­ment that you have no use for.”

Pointe-a-Pierre and Point Fortin

The UNC Pointe-a-Pierre MP urges a commission of inquiry on the closure of Petrotrin.

It was “rather ironic” that government was undertaking a commission of enquiry into the acquisition of land for the Point Fortin highway extension project, “yet one of the greatest acts of mismanagement which has been committed against our taxpayers, the destruction of Petrotrin remains unsolved. If this administration was really serious in holding those accountable for the misappropriation and blatant corrupt use of state funds they would … confirm to the population of TT who were the individuals that were solely responsible for destroying our national patrimony.”

If there was any single act which ever warranted … a commission of enquiry, it was the “Petrotrin debacle, due to the massive trauma it has caused our population with thousands being thrown onto the breadline, fence line businesses and communities being destroyed as well as our energy security being totally diminished. While the government grasps at straws in this current political witch hunt aimed at changing the narrative, our population is still seeking answers to the many inaccurate and questionable details which were put forward concerning Petrotrin.”

“These questions include, how could the Prime Minister say that the refinery was past its prime yet numerous entities placed bids for it? How could the government say that Petrotrin was making a loss yet made a profit in the last year of its operations? Why did this administration purposefully derail refinancing attempts …at revitalising the company? What new activities are being done by these new companies that were not being done at Petrotrin before? Why were all these issues relating to Petrotrin’s restructuring kept away from the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Energy?“

“A commission of enquiry into Petrotrin’s debts would finally heal the wounds of our taxpayers who have all been burdened by the billions in debts which PNM appointed officials plagued the company, eventually leading to its demise. Finally our population would get the answers as to as to why the Malcolm Jones-led board wasted over $2 billion on a failed WGTL plant, why over $170 million was spent to build a new Petrotrin Administrative building which was never completed and why auditors discovered in 2017 that $80 million was paid for oil that was never received by Petrotrin. Further, our country would be fully enlightened as to why the proceedings to ascertain those accountable for these debts were derailed by this Government.

“The Petrotrin restructuring process has been shrouded in …secrecy… given that it was not based on the best interest of our country but rather on the self-gain of a few. Our population deserves answers. If this government says that they want transparency across the board, they must investigate if criminal proceedings could be brought against those who destroyed Petrotrin also. Undertake a Commission of Enquiry into Petrotrin now, not tomorrow.”

OWTU

Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union ac­cused the Prime Min­is­ter of dis­tort­ing fig­ures saying that an av­er­age of $.5 mil­lion was paid as sev­er­ance to each Petrotrin work­er when the com­pa­ny closed.

The PM said that “no one was tossed on­to the pave­ment to suf­fer.” Tax­pay­ers paid out $2.7 bil­lion to 4,626 work­ers. Many have since been em­ployed some­where. He ad­mit­ted others were un­em­ployed.

“But …… if you di­vide $2700 mil­lion be­tween 4,626 work­ers, that is an av­er­age of about half a mil­lion per per­son. But of course, it’s not sim­ple as that. The high­er-paid per­sons with the longer ser­vice would have got more, … low­er-paid peo­ple with the short­er ser­vice would have got less. …”

3,400 were per­ma­nent while 1,226 were ca­su­al and tem­po­rary. When Petrotrin re­struc­tured, the Board of Di­rec­tors said that 800 would be em­ployed for Ex­plo­ration and Pro­duc­tion op­er­a­tions and an­oth­er 200 to man the ter­mi­nal fa­cil­i­ty.

Of the 800 po­si­tions at Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um, 147 peo­ple were di­rect­ly em­ployed by the com­pa­ny and con­trac­tors ac­count­ed for 534, bring­ing the to­tal count to 681. Of the 200 po­si­tions at the Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny, 129 were hired of which 99 were em­ployed by a con­trac­tor.

OW­TU said Row­ley again showed his dis­con­nect from re­al­i­ty. The state­ments showed no con­cern for the suf­fer­ing of thou­sands of work­ers who are yet to find jobs. “The Prime Min­is­ter did not men­tion that 3,000 tem­po­rary and ca­su­al work­ers got ab­solute­ly noth­ing. The Prime Min­is­ter did not men­tion that none of the sport club work­ers got noth­ing at all. He seems very un­con­cerned that the young work­ers, who were now start­ing their fam­i­lies, who had mort­gages and loans, got next to noth­ing. So much so that their ve­hi­cles are be­ing re­pos­sessed, some have had to seek help to save their homes and many of them have not got any job for all these months.”

While Row­ley threw out em­ploy­ment fig­ures, he was chal­lenged to show how many were for­mer Petrotrin workers. “You may have hired 681 at Her­itage, but how many were Petrotrin work­ers? Don’t put that out there, give a prop­er break­down and say how many were Petrotrin Work­ers.”

Be­cause the gov­ern­ment failed to ho­n­our pay­ment to Petrotrin’s trustee, the bank is threat­en­ing to shut down the pen­sion plan.

Commission of Enquiry into highway

Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter,  announced that Cab­i­net will ini­ti­ate a com­mis­sion of en­quiry to ex­am­ine the cir­cum­stances in which over $500 mil­lion was paid to home­own­ers to ac­quire land for the ex­ten­sion of the high­way from San Fer­nan­do to Point Fortin.    The com­mis­sion will de­ter­mine whether crim­i­nal or civ­il pro­ceed­ings should be brought against those in­volved. Cab­i­net was con­cerned about the func­tions of a min­is­te­r­i­al over­sight com­mit­tee ap­point­ed in 2011, chaired by the then prime min­is­ter.

A re­port was re­quest­ed by the Min­istry of Works fol­low­ing a study it con­duct­ed in­to com­pen­sa­tion for the high­way ex­ten­sion project and found that while $800 mil­lion was al­lo­cat­ed for land ac­qui­si­tion, over $500 mil­lion had al­ready been spent. Yet, the process of land ac­qui­si­tion is not near com­ple­tion. Over 520 prop­er­ties were ac­quired and paid for by state and 459 prop­er­ties remain to be ac­quired.

The com­mis­sion is to be chaired by re­tired judge Se­bas­t­ian Ven­tour as­sist­ed by at­tor­ney Gre­go­ry Delzin. Se­nior Coun­sel Regi­nald Amour will al­so serve , as­sist­ed by at­tor­neys Ve­nes­sa Gopaul and Rishi Dass.

It will over­see the project’s fund­ing and time-de­liv­ery and to en­sure that prop­er mon­i­tor­ing and eval­u­a­tion were un­der­tak­en for the coun­try to re­ceive val­ue for mon­ey.

The study found that the com­mit­tee hired pri­vate en­ti­ties, in­clud­ing lawyers, for the ne­go­ti­a­tions for com­pen­sa­tion. They too seemed to have been paid ex­ces­sive­ly. With re­gard to the com­pen­sa­tion , the re­port found that some peo­ple were paid for land that was no longer need­ed for the con­struc­tion of the high­way.

One per­son re­ceived $50 mil­lion and then made a claim for an ad­di­tion­al $30 mil­lion. Four per­sons in a house­hold were com­pen­sat­ed for the same prop­er­ty. One of the per­sons do­ing the val­u­a­tion of land, lat­er “un­jus­ti­fi­ably” in­creased the val­ue of land that he had al­ready sub­mit­ted.

Gov­ern­ment put a pause on any fur­ther monies for the ac­qui­si­tion of land and asked the tech­ni­cal team at the Works Min­istry for a re­port. The terms of the Com­mis­sion of En­quiry are ex­ten­sive and among them is to in­quire whether the min­is­te­r­i­al com­mit­tee ful­filled its man­date, to look at the cir­cum­stances in which the state ac­quire or has tak­en steps to ac­quire prop­er­ties that are no longer re­quired and the process by which the state and or the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (Nid­co) ap­proved the ac­qui­si­tions and com­pen­sa­tion.
The com­mis­sion will look for breach of du­ties and whether crim­i­nal, civ­il pro­ceed­ings should be ini­ti­at­ed.

It will rec­om­mend a process to be utilised as the stan­dard go­ing for­ward so that tax­pay­ers would not be sub­ject­ed to any abuse of of­fice.

Reaction to CoE

“Would he al­so be look­ing in­to the land ac­qui­si­tion in the Curepe In­ter­change project? Did he say?” Per­sad-Bissessr asked in Tu­na­puna.... “Would it in­clude fake oil? These and many oth­er is­sues are wor­thy of Com­mis­sions of En­quiry,” she said re­fer­ring to the $100 mil­lion oil scan­dal in­volv­ing A&V Oil com­pa­ny and de­funct Petrotrin.“I have no prob­lem with any CoE.. in the fourth year.. on the doorstep of your way out. I don’t see what they hope to get.”

The CoE was an at­tempt to dis­tract the pop­u­la­tion from the gov­ern­ment’s fail­ings. “They are seek­ing to dis­tract from their own in­com­pe­tence and their in­abil­i­ty to gov­ern.” She ques­tioned the le­gal­i­ty of the Fi­nance Min­is­ter’s let­ter to Paria Trad­ing chair­man waiv­ing the com­pa­ny’s $388 mil­lion Val­ue Added Tax, which was a mis­step.“.. Sec­tion 124 of the In­come Tax Act says that the Pres­i­dent can give a waiv­er or a re­mis­sion of the VAT as I un­der­stand it. But here we have the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance waiv­ing the VAT.”

That let­ter stated “In May, 2019 the gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go agreed that in ac­cor­dance with the pro­vi­sion of sec­tion 55 (2) of the Val­ue Added Tax Act Chap 75:06, which ap­plies Sec­tion 124 of the In­come Tax Act, Chap 75:01, to re­mis­sion to VAT Act in the sum, $382,499,481,83 on car­goes of re­fined pe­tro­le­um prod­ucts im­port­ed by Paria Fu­el Trad­ing Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed as at April 30th 2019..” Per­sad-Bisses­sar ques­tioned whether the Min­is­ter had the au­thor­i­ty to to as­sist the com­pa­ny with its cash flow. “It is my re­spect­ful view that this was in­cor­rect­ly done and that the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance should have is­sued a le­gal no­tice to the world and not just to the chair­man of Paria.”

A le­gal let­ter would also in­form the Board of In­land Rev­enue. “Can the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance sim­ply ad­vise the chair­man of Paria Trad­ing that they have re­mit­ted the VAT to the tune of 385 mil­lion as of April 2019? If it’s true and this is on­ly up to April, so by … the end of the fis­cal year, its an­oth­er 388.5 mil­lion. It ap­pears that this is a way to cook the books, as a ruse, as a sleight of hand to make the com­pa­ny prof­itable. That’s all it is on pa­per. The VAT is al­ready col­lect­ed at the pumps, so you the cus­tomer is al­ready pay­ing the VAT, al­ready paid it up to April, so what is hap­pen­ing with that mon­ey? It is al­ready record­ed on the Paria books to make it look as though they were mak­ing a prof­it.” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said one of the rea­sons given for closing Petrotrin was that the com­pa­ny was not pay­ing tax­es. “But… you com­plain that they not pay­ing tax­es, we shut you down and then .. you say ok, I’m not tak­ing tax. They make it up as they go along…” she said. Per­sad-Bisses­sar ac­cused the Prime Min­is­ter and FInance Minister of “spin­ning” the down­grade by Stan­dards and Poor. “How could a down­grade ever be a good thing for Trinidad and To­ba­go? Un­less the government does some­thing to ad­dress the prob­lem, we are falling off a slope, we are down in­to the precipice. The down­grade means our debt re­pay­ment ca­pac­i­ty is now more chal­leng­ing, we will face in­creased dif­fi­cul­ty is ac­cess­ing bor­row­ing and loans, giv­en the de­cline in our rev­enues as it is it is al­so go­ing to im­pact on for­eign di­et in­vest­ment. Since this government came in­to pow­er there has been no for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment.”

Petrotrin used to a net earn­er of for­eign ex­change, but now Paria Trad­ing has to find for­eign ex­change to pay to im­port fu­els and be­cause they are sell­ing to lo­cal sup­pli­ers like NP and Unipet, they earn TT dol­lars.

“We lost the for­eign ex­change we were earn­ing,” she said.

Venezuelan crisis 

Questions remain over the legal status of Venezuelan migrants, with no official asylum policy. While Venezuelans must hold a valid passport and visa, amnesty was offered to Venezuelans already in the country. 16,500 people who registered during May 31 to June 14 received work permits for six months or one year, basic medical care and a photo ID. There is uncertainty associated with the lack of asylum legislation, not least for those who arrived after the two-week window. Business highlighted positive outcomes with potential productivity and macroeconomic benefits while politicians and the public express concerns.

Sudesh Botha, of geospatial and engineering design company Giscad said Venezuelans see T&T as their next opportunity and… arrive with highly ambitious mindsets. This could have a noticeably positive impact on the economy overall. The population increase could have beneficial effects in the food, beverage and tobacco industry, the country’s largest manufacturing subsector.

“An increasing demographic trend … is a good thing. An increase of 4% in the formal labour market creates a net contribution to society and has the knock-on effect of more consumers ...” said beverage company Blue Waters. Citibank echoed this sentiment as the influx would lead to a “net benefit” as “.. migrant workers assist in filling the gaps in traditional low-skilled sectors.. but the retail sector will also receive a boost. If handled correctly, this could help kick-start the economy.”

Latin American connections

Venezuelans could help build stronger trade relations with the rest of Latin America.

Separated by 15 km of water, Venezuela and T&T enjoy close ties, as evidenced by their collaboration on oil and gas. T&T has limited trade links with South America and Spanish-speakers could enable greater engagement with the continent. Companies view migration favourably and welcome arrival of native Spanish speakers. T&T could position itself as a launch pad for other markets which would provide more scope for trade. Companies are hiring Venezuelans to help expansion plans in the continent.

Government and business are evaluating the potential impact of significant numbers of migrants entering, amid the political, economic and migration crisis in Venezuela. UN estimated that of 4 million who fled Venezuela some 60,000 arrived, 2.86% of T&T’s population. This is the highest rate in the region, above the 2.65% recorded in Colombia, with 1.3m migrants. Concerned over economic consequences of the recent influx, the governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago said the economy could be affected with an economic cost of around $620m a year.  There are particular concerns over the impact on labour, housing and public sector programmes such as national insurance and health care. While Colombia received a World Bank grant of $31.5m T&T has yet to receive external financial aid. The governor cited access to a $100m grant from the Inter-American Development Bank, for neighbouring countries receiving Venezuelan migrants.

International taxpayers are again appalled by repeated refusal to accept aid for beleaguered citizens, reeling from annual floods, crime, homelessness, disease and unemployment.

Flooded Oilfields

In 2017 ECO donated a dinghy to rescue rural victims in flooded oilfields and farms in abandoned southern districts, where a baby was born in a swamp. In 2018, ECO donated 2 dinghies for northern and eastern districts neglected by a stagnant ODPM and moribund military. Refusal to declare a disaster hindered the Red Cross but eventually the state stashed USD10 million in foreign aid. In 2019 the USA donated dinghies to councils. As pirates killed fishermen, military steelbands entertained in Scotland and the president attends the event as murders approach 350 and a minister is on bail for fraud.

Flood­ing in Los Ba­jos and Erin affected over 100 res­i­dents with ex­ten­sive dam­age to crops, live­stock and house­hold ar­ti­cles.  A trib­u­tary broke its banks, demolishing a wall be­hind a shop, Radesh Ram­per­sad said “I am so up­set .. be­cause my ex­pen­sive com­pres­sor, bat­tery charg­ers, drills and oth­er equip­ment got dam­aged by the wa­ter. The wall fell be­cause of the amount of wa­ter …. It was over four feet and it brought all kinds of rub­bish in­to the shop.”

In No­vem­ber he com­plained to the MP Nicole Olivierre, former Energy Minister, but noth­ing was done to dredge the riv­er. Re­cent­ly he took a loan from a mon­ey lender to buy equip­ment af­ter he got a con­tract with Massy En­er­gies. Chair­man of the Pa­lo Seco/Erin Jus­tice Com­mit­tee vis­it­ed the area and said the floods were caused by poor drainage and a lack of prepa­ra­tion by the Min­istry of Works to dredge the Los Iros Riv­er.

“… it is very sad to see so many res­i­dents suf­fer­ing. .. peo­ple can­not get out of their homes.”

Los Iros Riv­er had not been com­plete­ly dredged since 1995. “The riv­er was sup­posed to be about 22 feet wide but in some places, it closed up to about 4 feet wide. There are big trees grow­ing in the riv­er. The Min­istry has done some work in a few places but it is not enough. The wa­ter can­not flow from the riv­er in­to the sea so it is fill­ing the res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ties.” 

Par­ents were un­able to en­ter Pa­lo Seco Sec­ondary School as the flood­wa­ters were too high. Olivierre has been tour­ing the af­fect­ed ar­eas. First re­spon­der agen­cies have been on site and to see that the wa­ter is sub­sid­ing rapid­ly. Once an as­sess­ment is done, as­sis­tance will be giv­en. Some dredg­ing had been done on the rivers .

Guyana meets investors

The business community received invitations from the High Commissioner of Guyana to the to attend an investor outreach by a seven-member delegation from the Guyana government.
A local opposition MP objected to the caretaker Government of President David Granger raising investments. UNC urges establishment of a TT High Commission in Georgetown.

OBITUARY

Den­nis Patrick 1957-2019

The Chief Ex­ec­u­tive of Of­fi­cer of Trinidad Methanol Hold­ing Lim­it­ed, Den­nis Patrick, in the Unit­ed States, after  seek­ing treat­ment at the Jack­son Memo­r­i­al Hos­pi­tal, Mi­a­mi.

The Chem­i­cal En­gi­neer joined MHTL in 1996. He worked in the Com­mer­cial De­part­ment, as­cend­ing to the role of Chief Com­mer­i­cal Of­fi­cer. He became Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer af­ter Ram­per­sad Moti­lal sur­pris­ing­ly re­signed in 2013, ini­tial­ly act­ing in the role be­fore be­ing con­firmed in the po­si­tion.

He served the En­er­gy Sec­tor for over 35 years.