Petrotrin Chairman Wilfred Espinet says selection of staff for the two successor companies to Petrotrin, Paria Fuel Trading and Heritage Petroleum Company Limited, will be done by a team of experts with the knowledge and expertise required to ensure the best people are hired.
While HRC and Associates and Progressive Recruitment Limited were retained, thosee two companies will not be doing the recruiting, he explained.
“They are in fact at the stage of getting the applications, they are doing the administrative part of the recruiting, but the recruiting will actually be done based on a team of experts that will be put together.”
Although he declined to say who will make up the team of experts, Espinet said it will comprise people of stature “who do not have evidence of being tainted in any process so that it will be able to stand public scrutiny.”
Selection of staff must be completed by the time Petrotrin shuts its doors on November 30 for the start of operations at the new companies on December 1.
Paria and Heritage are both registered locally and are owned by a new holding company, Trinidad Petroleum Company Limited, which will have four subsidiaries to deal with the legacy items of the Petrotrin, exploration and production, terminalling and marketing and the refinery and its assets.
Espinet said although Paria and Heritage are state owned they have been designed to pursue the opportunities available for their success.
What is more critical than ownership of the companies is the issue of governance as that will determine success and the companies’ ability to “be sustainable and for us to get a return on it,” he said.
On the role of the current Petrotrin board, Espinet explained: “There is going to be a period where the existing board will want to influence how this unfolds because of their relationship with the whole concept.”
However, he could not give a timeline for their involvement.
While admitting that there is no guarantee of profitability, Espinet is confident that “what we are doing is very doable, with the right management, with the right governance it could make money.”
He added: “I am clear in my mind it could make money from very soon after start up because it has all of the wherewithal to do it.”
What is critical to the success and viability of the new entities is that the structure is robust enough to ensure “it does not fall back into the same morass that it is currently,” Espinet said
Paria Fuel is listed as a trading company. Asked whether this will negatively impact which company markets fuel, Espinet said there is currently no discussion on a change in NP’s role.
As to the supply to the Caribbean, he admitted that because this country will be importing fuel it will lose the advantage of the 15 per cent Common External Tariff (CET) but pointed out that even before there were people in the region bringing in fuel.
“Why would we want to buy and sell? You might make a few dollars but it has to be very well run,” he said.