Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet says there will be no turning back on the decision to shut down the company and terminate workers despite yesterday’s injunction granted by the Industrial Court in favour of the Oilfields Workers Trade Union. In fact, he says the company is prepared to go all the way to the Privy council if it has to.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian hours after the court’s decision, Espinet said Petrotrin’s attorneys will file an appeal today, adding they hope to get a hearing immediately.
He said the injunction only stops the company from issuing letters to workers who are represented by the OWTU, but turning back is not an option because the plan to shut down operations “has been effected, it effectively means we have stopped bringing in materials.”
“If the injunction, as I understand it, is to stop us from carrying out the termination of workers then I don’t know how it will work, because the company you will appreciate will not be working. It will close down and you will have workers. I don’t know how that works,” he said.
Espinet admitted the company has no money. Some of it, he said, was secured by “government guarantees and some was just unsecured to us as credit loans that in the present environment has dried up.”
“Petrotrin is unable to pay its bills. We are seeking to get the Government to give us financial support for that amount that was given to us on credit,” adding a Government guarantee will support the company for the time being until it concludes the restructuring process.
“If we are left as we are, we will have no money to pay workers and we will have difficulty on getting anybody to help us,” he said, adding it will be near impossible for Petrotrin to refinance its debt.
“That is going to impact the national debt and it will impede the progress of our programme, so the country as a whole will be damaged because you will get downgraded by Moody’s.”
Meanwhile, Petrotrin has invited heads of the industry to attend a session at the Hilton Trinidad today, where Espinet and Lisa Ali, head of the Transition and Implementation Office, will present plans for the transition of the company. The discussion will focus on new business opportunities as Petrotrin strives to develop an entirely new sustainably profitable Exploration and Production business.
Efforts to contact Energy Minister Franklin Khan on the court ruling were unsuccessful.