Petrotrin president: No bad blood with Minister Khan

“I think it is very important to be frank about the issues that we have to deal with,” Petrotrin president Fitzroy Henry said in a closing presentation at the AmCham’s 20th anniversary HSSE conference at Hyatt Regency, Port-of- Spain yesterday.

Henry was speaking a day after Khan hauled Petrotrin over the coals for not taking enough responsibility for the environmental and social impacts of oil spills. He also hinted that the State company was less than forthcoming about their culpability for the environmental disasters.

In a presentation where Henry readily admitted Petrotrin’s faults, the president said the company aimed high, but did not always meet the mark.

In response to questions from Newsday, Henry said he did not think the minister’s statements on Tuesday set an adversarial tone to his dealings with Petrotrin going forward.

“We have to work with the ministry and we will and if there is a view on how we need to deal with issues, we are going to take it on board in terms of how we plan.

That is fair. Our commitment is to work with the ministry, because the ministry is a key stakeholder for us.” Henry said given the company’s importance to the country’s economy, there could be no other approach but to face the problems Petrotrin had head on.