PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Trinidad and Tobago government on Monday announced it had appointed a seven member committee to review the operations of the state-owned Petroleum Company Limited (PETROTRIN).

A brief government statement noted that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley presented the instruments of appointments to the committee that is being chaired by Selwyn Lashley, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy & Energy Affairs and includes Robert Riley, Head of Safety and Operational Risk, Competency and Capability Development at the BP Group in London and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BPTT.

The committee members also include Gregory Marchan and David Abdullah of the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) that has been calling for a probe of the loss-making oil company.

“This appointment honours a Cabinet decision made on February 23rd  2017 to review operations at the company in light of falling revenues, allegations of mismanagement and decreasing oil prices worldwide. “The committee is tasked with making recommendations for restructuring of the company and its first report is scheduled to be submitted on June 1st 2017,” the statement added.

Last week, Finance Minister Colm Imbert, who is also the acting Energy Minister, said the says the financial position of the state-owned oil company, PETROTRIN, is far worse than the reported  net loss, after tax, of TT$533 million (US$85,280,000) in its unaudited financials for the year ending September 30, last year.

In a statement to Parliament last Monday, Imbert said that the company had in fact recorded a loss of TT$4.5 billion after having accumulated losses of TT$4.2 billion between 2011-2016 that were not shown in its accounts.