Business
Trinidad & Tobago: PETROTRIN dismisses 6 in connection to recent oil spills
Cleaning crews working to clear up pollution resulting from oil spill, Dec. 23, 2013. PHOTO/Trinidad Express
Six senior employees of the Trinidad & Tobago state owned company PETROTRIN have been dismissed in the aftermath of oil spills that led to the loss of more than 7,000 barrels of oil late last year.
This was disclosed by PETROTRIN CEO Khalid Hassanali at a press conference held on Friday to disclose the findings of the investigation into the oil spills that affected hundreds along the south-western coastline.
He said the investigation conducted by six PETROTRIN employees including a member from the Oilfields Workers Trade Union (OWTU) was completed on Friday evening.
Initially, PETROTRIN reported there were 11 incidents of oil spills from December 17 to 29.
Four of these leaks were related to companies that have joint ventures with PETROTRIN including: Trinity Exploration and Production Company and Neal and Massy Energy Resources Ltd.
The company initially reported that a weld leak developed on the No 10 Sea Line at the PETROTRIN Pointe-a-Pierre port during fuel oil bunkers loading operations for the barge Marabella on December 17.
Hassanali provided a detailed history as to how the spill occurred and said the 12 employees were interviewed at least three times for various reasons.
“Twelve were initially suspended. Of those 12, six were found to have a lesser level of culpability and 6 were found to have a very high degree of culpability. And, for those 6 where the level of culpability weighed very heavily, those 6 were issued letters of termination from employment at PETROTRIN.”
According to Hassanali, PETROTRIN welcomes other investigations regarding the oil spill since the company was always “open to scrutiny.”
Meanwhile, the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) recently called for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to provide all of the records and documentary evidence it had relating to the recent oil spills.
“We in the OWTU, we are very concerned about the consequence of those oil spills and we are concerned that the management, in their desperate attempt to cover up the real cause, the root cause of those oil spills, we are very concerned that the real issues will not come out, and if those issues are not brought to the fore then the national oil company is in great danger of having re-occurrences and so on in the future,” said OWTU president-general Ancel Roget.
“If PETROTRIN goes down, then the people of Trinidad & Tobago will lose and therefore we felt that it is our responsibility to not sit idly by and allow the management and the board of directors with its chairman peddle a lot of misinformation to the public in general and of course to their bosses in the Cabinet,” Roget added. -(CMC)