Oil CEO: Time for TT to go it alone in energy sector

Kase Lawal, CEO of CAMAC Holdings Ltd, an oil and gas exploration company in the US, wants Trinidad and Tobago to put its own stamp on oil exploration and gas production.

Lawal said there was no reason why TT could not look to explore its marginal fields with teams of local professionals. “It does not take much to start a company,” he said, adding that government could provide incentives for local companies that wish to go into oil and gas exploration. “Let the government bring in professional managers and let them run it.” He dismissed the view that this was risky business, noting that a company could turn over a profit on 500 bpd, a money-making machine. Lawal’s company has about one billion in turnover annually. He described Petrotrin as bloated and a company with high overheads. Petrotrin, he argued, does not need a partner. What the state-owned company needed was to be privatised. He said TT most wanted to get to the point where there will be no need to bring in foreign managers. That, he said, is the key to empowerment, adding that this could stimulate entrepreneurial activity. 

In Nigeria, he said, there were local energy companies owned and operated by the private sector, noting that this is where TT should be headed. He made reference to ‘cabotage law,’ operating in Nigeria, where local companies are given controlling interests in the formation of any joint venture, sometimes 60 percent: 40 percent.  In an adress to business people at the annual Trade and Investment symposium organised by the Emancipation Support Committee last week at the Hilton Trinidad, Kase made the case for TT and Africa to strengthen energy ties. The first step to furthering cooperstion in the energy sector was the signing of a Memorandum of Cooporation between NGC/Petrotrin and the Africa company, Petro SA. The memorandum will look at exploration and production as well as petrochemicals and refining, according to Eric Williams, Minister of Energy and Energy Industries, who gave a presentation on “Growth in the Energy Sector.” This deal, said Lawal, was not a charitable deal, or an emotional tie. It was economic reality, he said. According to Lawal, this link between the two regions is long overdue, especially with our entwining histories. “As people of African decent, we know that millions of our people in Africa, America and the Caribbean are poor. We know that underdevelopment has plagued most of the nations of Africa and the Caribbean,” said Kawal.

In an interview later at the Hilton Trinidad, Lawal made the case for TT to take more control of the oil and energy sector. He stressed that there was no need to destabilise the existing agreements with the international oil giants like BP and British Gas. He added that both regions are blessed with significant natural resources and by combining these resources both can become a force to reckon with. “Using the critical mass and economies of scale it is a place where investors will take advantage of. But as the minister mentioned, you need to combine this productivity with the resources you are endowed with into monetization for the people,” said Lawal. He added the Government should consider setting up an empowerment fund to finance various empowerment groups that qualify for the acquisition of assets within the local energy sector. “Such funds can be set up in conjunction with the International Finance Corporation, a private arm of the World Bank,” said Lawal. “The leadership is here, the resources are here, make it come together,” he said. Government, he said, should make it mandatory for local companies to enter the oil industry.