There is no link between the Heritage Petroleum Company Limited and Heritage Oil and Gas of Indiana.
A senior Petrotrin official yesterday told the T&T Guardian it was a “mere coincidence” that the new company registered and incorporated under the Companies Act to assume the Exploration and Production aspect previously carried out by Petrotrin, had a similar name to a company based in the United States which focuses on trading.
The official said the “Heritage Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago is wholly-owned by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, it is registered and incorporated.”
Weighing in on the name issue yesterday, energy expert Anthony Paul also said it is not “unusual” to find companies with a similar name. Paul said some years ago there was a company named Heritage locally which was also in the Exploration and Production business, which was subsequently bought out by Tullow Oil in Guyana.
Paul noted that he himself had registered a company called Paria which was also meant to do trading.
“These things come and go,” Paul said.
As of yesterday, Heritage and Paria were registered and incorporated with two directors, Wilfred Espinet and Reynold Adjodhasingh, in keeping with the requirement that for a company to be registered it must have at least two directors. The T&T Guardian was told the composition of the board of both companies will be up to the Government. Both companies were registered and incorporated on October 5.
HRC and Associates, a company headed by Hollick Rajkumar, is doing the head-hunting for senior top executive and managerial positions at both companies and as of yesterday, the source said no staff had been recruited for any position. But the T&T Guardian was told key positions have been identified and it is expected these will be filled in the next six weeks but before December 1, when the companies will officially begin business following the Petrotrin shutdown on November 30.
The T&T Guardian was also told a second company, Progressive Recruitment, had been retained to assist with the staff hunt. In all, 800 employees will be employed by Heritage while 200 will be employed by Paria.
While there was an expectation of a launch of the two new companies last weekend, the T&T Guardian was informed that there will be no launch until both companies are fully outfitted with the manpower required. According to our source, the companies will not just be “lean and mean, with a new culture which does not include nepotism and waste,” but will also be “fundamentally different” to Petrotrin, which was an integrated company producing crude, refining the product and then selling it.
In the case of the two new companies, Heritage will produce the crude for export while Paria will have the responsibility of importing refined products to sell locally and in the Caribbean.
As for LPG, the T&T Guardian was told the source of supply will be Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited (PPGPL), but there may be a need for some kind of subsidy from the Government. Currently, Petrotrin subsidized the cost of LPG to the tune of $200 million.
Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet was unavailable for comment on the new companies yesterday, as he was said to be in meetings. Calls to his mobile phone also went unanswered.
Efforts to reach Energy Minister Franklin Khan on the issue were also unsuccessful.