Petrotrin confirms minutes of Board meeting in their possession

Petrotrin yesterday confirmed that the minutes of a Board meeting were in the possession of the company’s corporate secretary and were not missing.

In a letter to the Editor, Petrotrin said it wished to confirm that the minutes referred to in yesterday’s Newsday article, “are in the possession of the Corporate Secretary” as is customary for all minutes of Petrotrin Board meetings. Minutes referred to in the Newsday report involved a meeting at which the unanimous decision by the Board was taken insisting  that Exxon/Mobil pay a (US)$45 million penalty for its failure to complete its contract drilling programme off Trinidad’s east coast.

Subsequently the State-owned oil company held another meeting and reportedly reversed its decision after it was reportedly told to do so by “higher” authority on the grounds that Exxon-Mobill was important to Trinidad and Tobago’s oil exploration programmes. Three members of Petrotrin’s Board, Emile Elias, Helena Inniss-King and Farad Khan are no longer on the Board. Elias resigned on April 18 and the other two were removed. Elias would only confirm that he had resigned. Khan said meetings of the Board were confidential.