Waited to exhale

Many voices were adamant for a resolution.

Labour Minister, Jennifer Baptiste- Primus, must be congratulated for her success in chairing the lengthy and exhausting talks.

Workers will get the extra five percent in their next pay-packs, with a final figure to be settled by February 28, and a timetable to be mutually agreed for disbursement of back-pay. Yet the five percent interim wage-hike leaves questions unanswered.

Firstly, even as the period 2014 to 2017 goes to the Industrial Court for conciliation on the heels of the 2011 to 2014 period, itself long past, we ask what can be done in future to mandate the prompt settlement of wage-talks for successive periods? Secondly, will a final deal indeed be struck by the agreed date of February 28? Thirdly, what will be the final percentage hike? Fourthly, will agreement be reached on a timeline to pay backpay? Fifthly, will anyone’s job be put at risk by the final deal, whether worker or management? Sixthly, while both Petrotrin president, Fitzroy Harewood, and OWTU head, Ancel Roget, said the extra $80 million per year on the wagebill will be generated by new efficiencies in Petrotrin’s operations, what exactly will these measures be? Roget foresees savings if Petrotrin rids itself of alleged corruption and mismanagement, even as another view is to link workers wages to their productivity, perhaps by an agreed formula on the simple realisation that monies can’t just be conjured out of thin air.

However underlying all of this is a huge question mark as to how much wriggle room Petrotrin actually has, to trim the fat and measurably boost its efficiencies. On top of its longstanding failure to refine/make a better quality product - by way of its lapsed US$1.4 billion Gas Optimisation Project (GOP), $3.2 billion Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) and most infamously its $3.3 billion Gas to Liquids (GTL) project, came last March’s downgrade by Moody’s.

In addition to issues over quality, Moody’s also questioned the quantity of output from Petrotrin’s refinery, and even the risk posed by having a single refinery.

Ironically, an inching up of world oil-prices could cost Petrotrin said Moody’s, apparently referring to costlier imported oil eating into its refining margins.

Even on Petrotrin’s other activity of drilling/extraction, Moody’s lamented that “the small size and maturity of its hydrocarbon reserve” means that much money must be invested to extract small pools of oil and gas.

The agency saw some positives, namely Petrotrin’s monopoly in the distribution/export of refined products, its operational integration in exploration and production, and TT’s supportive regulatory environment.

On top of the nation’s collective relief at the five percent settlement, we don’t wish to appear pessimistic but simple sound a cautionary note that much effort will now be required to generate the extra revenues to pay whatever sum is the final wage-hike agreed. Petrotrin’s best prospects may lie in pushing to achieve greater volumes of oil both refined at Pointe-a-Pierre and extracted from its wells, with better accompanying efficiencies where possible.