Petrotrin’s president resigns

PORT OF SPAIN, December 4, 2017 – Petrotrin President Fitzroy Harewood has resigned voluntarily amid fraud allegations, the company’s chairman, Wilfred Espinet, told journalists on Sunday.

News of Harewood’s resignation amid an investigation of discrepancies in the volumes of crude purchased and received from A&V Oil and Gas initially broke on Friday. He is expected to step down at the end of February 2018, local daily Sunday Newsday reported.

“I don’t want to say anything was connected. What was circulated is what is. You have to make your own assessment. He has given notice. It is a voluntary notice. If you are [working somewhere] and there is an issue you wouldn’t stay there,” Espinet told the newspaper.

Critics, however, have demanded additional information.

“It is not good enough to tell the country just that he resigned. Given the many clouds over the company, most notably the fake oil scandal, it is imperative that the company go a step further and give the reason for this resignation. In the absence of such information there will be all sorts of speculation,” former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine told the Sunday Newsday.

The so-called fake oil scandal comes amid a series of incidents that have characterised 2017 as a tumultuous year for the company, including several oil spills and the replacement of the Petrotrin board. Information related to to Harewood’s successor has yet to be released.

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