Juniors comment on Petrotrin restructuring

Range Resources and Touchstone Exploration expect no impact from the announced restructuring of Trinidad and Tobago state oil company Petrotrin, which will exit the refinery business.

In a statement, UK-based Range said that it "currently sells all of its produced oil in Trinidad to Petrotrin under various contracts and not directly to the refinery."

Range added that it "expects that following the restructuring it will continue to sell its produced oil to Petrotrin and the restructuring of Petrotrin's operations is not anticipated therefore to have any impact on the company's operations in Trinidad."

For its part, Calgary-based Touchstone "believes these changes will have no impact on its current and future operations, as the company currently sells produced crude oil volumes to Petrotrin under various marketing contracts and does not interact directly with the refinery."

Touchstone president and CEO Paul Baay said: "We believe this is a difficult but necessary step for Petrotrin."

In April, S&P revised its outlook on Petrotrin to negative from stable, while Moody's said in May that it expects the NOC to reverse weak operating performance in the short term.

The IMF previously highlighted that Petrotrin's "financial difficulties were caused both by external factors (relating to global energy markets) and internal factors (cost structure and liquidity position)."

The country's energy ministry Franklin Khan said recently that Petrotrin's financial constraints have limited the company's exploration efforts.

Pictured: Petrotrin's Pointe-a-Pierre refinery (CREDIT: Petrotrin)