THE Prime Minister says Heritage Petroleum Company Ltd is more than halfway to repaying its predecessor’s $11.8 billion debt after less than six years of operation.
Dr. Rowley said he is now standing proudly behind his decision to restructure Petrotrin.
Speaking during the launch of an apprenticeship programme with the Ministry of Youth Development and National Service (MYDNS), Heritage chairman Michael Quamina SC said the company had already serviced $7.5 billion of its predecessor’s debt.
“(This) works out to an average annual payment of $1.4 billion a year on the Petrotrin debts, which we are servicing without assistance from the shareholder,” he said.
In addition to decreasing its debt, Quamina said the company has been making its tax requirements, paying around $12.6 billion annually since its inception in 2018.
These payments, he said, were being made all while meeting core expenses for exploration and production of oil and gas. Those costs, he said, are expected to total $2.9 billion this year.
Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Stuart Young said this positive financial revelation would not have been possible without the government’s decision to restructure the state-owned oil company in 2018.
For the Prime Minister, it was nothing short of what he called a “success story. “On top of servicing the loan and taking responsibility and the threat away from the Minister of Finance, Heritage has done so well that it is able to carry out its legal responsibilities, which is to pay its taxes and royalties to the Minister of Finance. Something that Petrotrin was not doing,” he said.
“Heritage has been paying its liabilities to the BIR (Board of Inland Revenue), so we’ve been getting some taxes from Heritage. Heritage is a success story.”
The move to restructure Petrotrin has been one of Rowley’s most contentious policies during his term in office, particularly for former workers, the Opposition UNC, and trade unions. But, Rowley said, while these groups may have been happier if the government held its hand, citizens would not have.
“$850 million US dollars due in August 2018 in one check, which Petrotrin could not pay. Struggling to service an additional $750 million US... That was the national oil company. If we had left it the way it was, approximately 5,000 people would have been happy, a union would have been all over the country making noise and threatening everybody, living high on the hog. But 1.4 million people would have been on the road to the IMF (International Monetary Fund). The government had to act.”
At the time, he said going to the IMF would have resulted in a significant devaluation of the country’s currency down to between TT$10 or $12 to US $1.
“If you want to think you could talk now about property tax is a pressure and this is a pressure and that is a pressure, I want you for just one moment, contemplate the exchange rate at $10 or $12 to US$1. That is what this government was facing. That is what this government saved the country from.”
As part of the restructu
