TT Govt. to reopen and renegotiate contracts with energy companies…If you can’t manage gas stations properly, how can you manage the Oil sector?

Mar 19, 2018 ExxonMobil, News

– TT Prime Minister

If the Ministry of Energy has been doing an unsatisfactory job in managing gas stations in Trinidad and Tobago , then what confidence can one have that it has managed the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business any better?
This was the question TT’s Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley posed to his attentive audience at the recently held Spotlight on Energy Conference in Port of Spain last week.
There, the Prime Minister said, “When we reach the point where we bring up gas, produce it, sell it in a market where profits are being made and the return is negative – meaning you get nothing, meaning you have to pay the person to take it from you – something is radically wrong and we just can’t accept that as the way of doing business.”
In this regard, Dr. Rowley said he was speaking about the responsibilities of the Ministry of Energy in managing a billion dollar business.
“A simple thing like licensing and managing gas stations in Trinidad saw the Ministry of energy falling down on the job. I wonder if you recall the El Pecos explosion that killed somebody and then next thing, a few days or weeks later, a similar explosion took place in another place.”

Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley

“It turned out to be the same truck, the same man doing the same thing. And then we discovered that the Ministry of Energy had not even been issuing licenses to gas stations, a requirement under law for gas stations.”
The TT Prime Minister said that those two explosions could have made world news had they gone the way they could have gone, fortunately they didn’t.
“I tell you this to say, if that is how we manage the gas station business in Trinidad and Tobago, what confidence do you have that we have managed the LNG business any better? Are we relying on luck and good graces…?”
Dr. Rowley called on his attentive audience to ask themselves if they are ready to say that the time has come to talk and to work more professionally and more effectively because this is serious business.
GUYANA’S SITUATION
Like Trinidad and Tobago, authorities here have struggled with the effective management issues in the petroleum sector.
In fact, a 2015 forensic audit report on the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) shows that it adopted a “free-for-all’ approach in its management of the billion dollar sector as it allowed a chain of gas station services to operate without licences.
The report prepared by Nigel Hinds Financial Services found that GEA issued invoices for licence fees to three of the seven service stations belonging to Two Brothers Corp.
But based on its examination of GEA records, the auditors revealed that there was no evidence that any of the three service stations were issued retail licenses for the period under review.
The auditors were basically facing a situation where GEA gave the impression that Two Brothers paid for the licences but the company never got the licences.
The team concluded in no uncertain terms that none of the Two Brothers Corp. service stations were operating with retail licences for the review period. The auditors even elaborated further on this front.
They said that based on the documents obtained and examined from the Two Brothers Group of Companies and/or any of its directors, no evidence could be found that Two Brothers Corp. had ever been issued with any licence, with the exception of two.
One was a Bulk transportation licence issued to Javed R. Ali, a director of Two Brothers Corp. for vehicles GHH 5738 and GHH 6682. The other was a retail license issued to Two Brothers Variety Shop located in Kumaka Water Front, North West District.
Additionally, the forensic auditors discovered that GEA’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Mahender Sharma had issued a letter dated August 17, 2015, captioned “Petroleum License Fees” to Mr. Javed Ali, along with invoice # 1507/002 for retail licensing fees. The total amount of that invoice was $1.4M.
But what baffled the auditing team was the fact that not a single shred of evidence could be found to prove that Two Brothers Corp. paid the invoiced amount as of October 26, 2015.
The auditors stressed that Two Brothers Services Stations should not be allowed to operate without GEA retail licences. They recommended in 2015 that this be corrected. Since the revelation of this matter, it has not been publically stated by the GEA if any corrective action has been taken.