A former bpTT employee has become the first person to be hired in the new Exploration and Production Company that is to emerge from State-owned Petrotrin.
Nigel Campbell has been hired as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer and the announcement was made last Friday by Raynold Ajodhasingh, a member of Petrotrin’s board of directors.
In an internal memo dated September 14, 2018, Ajodhasingh said, “Please be advised that Mr Nigel Campbell has been appointed Chief Financial Officer with effect from 2018 September 1. Your support and co-operation with Mr Campbell would be appreciated.”
Cambell’s appointment is in keeping with a statement made by Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet that all Petrotrin employees will be sent home and the 800 jobs in the new Exploration and Production company will be open to anyone and not just former employees.
Campbell’s LinkedIn profile shows that he worked at bpTT as its Financial Comptroller from 1997 to 2002, before moving on to work for three years as a financial adviser to the Bermuda government. In 2006, Campbell worked as a financial advisor with BHP and from 2008 to 2013 was the finance manager at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. Campbell has since worked as the financial comptroller for the Trinidad operations of Stork Technical Services International. He holds a BSC in Industrial Management, is also a certified public accountant and has an MBA in Leadership, Innovation and Management.
Contacted on the issue yesterday, in an interview with the Sunday Guardian, Espinet said Campbell had been contracted to facilitate the transition.
In an interview with the Sunday Guardian, Espinet had said the decision was taken to “wipe the slate clean” and ensure that the new E&P Company was not “saddled with the baggage of the old Petrotrin.”
“We want a new company that will have no baggage and will be in a position to generate cash flows to pay its debt and make a return to the shareholder. In sending home all the employees from E&P, so we avoid contention on why one person was allowed to stay on and another let go. Plus we will need people with certain types of knowledge and skill sets that may not now exist in the organisation, so we felt we should terminate everyone,” Espinet explained.
Asked if this meant that the Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union would no longer be the recognised trade union in this new company, Espinet said, “You will have to ask them that yourself.”
Last month, the decision to shut down the refinery was announced and at that time it was revealed that the 1,700 workers in the refinery would be retrenched.
Espinet said finding a private partner for the new E&P was also a distinct possibility.
“You know this business much better than me and people tell us that we could significantly increase crude production, and that is great, but to do that, I know it will cost a lot of money which we do not have. So I am thinking we can have a partner in the company, we may have a partner to do specific things in specific areas. What I am saying is that there are many possibilities.”
The OWTU has accused the Government of shutting down Petrotrin in an effort to sell it to the private sector.