Petrotrin: Hard times, but we will support pan

“We are a national company supporting the national instrument,” said Petrotrin President, Fitzroy Harewood on Tuesday evening to Newsday in Petrotrin Hatters’ panyard at Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando.

“It is no secret that Petrotrin is going through a challenging period, but we count it a privilege and an honour to be part of this experience of giving communities a cultural outlet for expression.” Harewood said he could not put an exact figure to Petrotrin’s financial contribution to Carnival 2017, but said it was “more or less” the same as last year. “We have been contributing to a few sponsored bands, and we have been assisting a number of bands. We’ve been trying to keep the assistance within some of four fence-line communities, like Siparia, Point Fortin, San Fernando, and even the ones other than the fence line.” Following January’s averted strike, Petrotrin was given a renewed mandate by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to increase productivity while also cutting costs.

“I don’t think we are at a stage to announce anything as yet, but we are doing a lot of work in that respect,” said Harewood.

“That was a mandate we had even before that incident so basically that incident has accelerated our efforts and we continue to discuss that with the state and all the various stakeholders about how we are going to go forward.

We are always looking for ways to cut costs but we have maintained our contribution to the culture, to the community and to the steelband.” Petrotrin Chairman, Andrew Jupiter, was also present to show the company’s support for one of their many sponsored bands, Petrotrin Hatters, as they were judged in their panyard for the Medium Band category for Panorama.

Hatters performed the calypso “Engine Room” sung by Dalani “Lani K” Kojo with a band of 50 players, most of whom were young people from the neighbouring community, Embacadere.

The tune was arranged by Kevin Mcleod.