Petrotrin floors gas pedal

PETROTRIN is putting its shoulder to the wheel  with  a five-year Strategic Plan,  2005-2009, in which it hopes to change its focus from oil to gas. The idea of the plan was conceived by the company’s Executive Chairman, Malcolm Jones, who directed the team to analyse Petrotrin’s past performance and predict future market conditions. Jones said: “Much of the current upstream production is from very mature fields that are expensive to operate with relatively low production volumes. “Their viability is dependent on a high oil price. We decided that we must change the focus of our efforts and upgrade our portfolio of oil assets to more productive oil fields, with more gas which has been highly profitable for the company in the last two years.”

He found that systematic changes were needed if the company is to remain viable and secure in the future. According to Jones, “Petrotrin’s past and current performance has been highly sensitive to market conditions. “We have only really made profits when the market has been buoyant, and this is just not the hallmark of a successful company,” he said. Members of the strategy team, the executive leadership team, the Board of Directors and representatives from the company, have all been involved in shaping the future direction of Petrotrin, said Jones. The strategy highlights a number of fundamental changes and performance improvements. According to Petrocon-nect, a publication of Petrotrin, although the company will remain an integrated oil and gas company, the vision is to transform it into a higher margin business with improved performance in all areas.

To achieve this, there will be a restructuring and reviewing of mature and ageing assets, and initiatives, to improve the performance of people and processes. There will be an expansion into new acreage, through partnering and an emphasis on incremental gas development. Jones  noted that over the years, refinery performance had improved, “but we still compare poorly with our competitors who have improved faster than us.” Jones stressed: “It is vital that we cut costs and improve not only the performance of the refinery to increase net margins, but we also must make investments so that we are able to retain our existing customer markets and produce products which meet ever more stringent environmental standards.”

Jones warned that Petrotrin was likely to face significantly increased competition over the next two to three years, as Caricom opens up its markets to abide by free trade agreements. Noting that Petrotrin was the legacy of a number of organisations, he said it was imperative that they be fused together with one common culture, so that the performance of the company can be better managed. “It is important for people to think about their own personal performance and how it could be improved for the benefit of the company as a whole,” said Jones. Also, he explained, performance — whether good or bad — would no longer go unnoticed. Rewards and consequences will be commensurate with an individual’s performance in his new job, said Jones.

“Everybody at Petrotrin has a role to play in ensuring the future success of our company, by wholeheartedly embracing this opportunity to take the company forward,” he added. Meanwhile, Petrotrin has entered into joint venture and farmout arrangements with a number of foreign oil companies for a major exploration initiative on land and near shore. This is an effort to find the domestic crude and gas that will improve the company’s refinery margins and profits, said the company. Several of these have been finalised and are proceeding with varying degrees of success. According to petroconnect, joint ventures are continuing to provide Petrotrin with a steady increase in oil and gas production, while bringing much needed capital and technology, especially 3D Seismic to its acreages.