Trinidad’s Petrotrin Closes Refinery to Focus on Oil Exploration

(Bloomberg) -- Petrotrin, the state-owned oil company of Trinidad and Tobago, is closing its refining business to focus on crude exploration after amassing losses, debt and overdue taxes in past years.  The producer is cutting 1,700 refining jobs and will be left with about 800 workers in its exploration and production business following losses of about 8 billion Trinidad and Tobago dollars ($1.2 billion) over the past five years, Petroleum Co. of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. said Tuesday. The company was no longer producing enough to efficiently run its 168,000-barrel-a- day refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre, Chairman Wilfred Espinet said in an emailed statement.   “With the termination of the refining operations and the redesign of exploration and production, Petrotrin will now be able to independently finance all of its debt and become a sustainable business,” Espinet said.