March 18, 2016: Petrotrin Responds to Moody’s Credit Rating Petrotrin's unsecured debt rating has been revised by Moody’s Investors Service to Ba3 from Ba1 due to weak liquidity and refinancing risks. The credit rating agency has indicated that this revision is based on the Company’s performance in the last couple of years and their expectations of continued challenges ahead given the current market conditions.
This latest adjustment in our credit rating comes at a time when the Company is reducing its operating costs, maintaining crude production levels and improving refinery throughput.
It is noteworthy that the rating agency noted unsatisfactory refinery performance which featured in previous years during the construction and commissioning works associated with the Gas Optimization project.
However, since the commissioning of the upgraded refinery, the Company has experienced significant improvements in Refining Operations for 2016. This includes very high refinery utilization, high monthly throughput on several process units including the FCCU and the Alkylation unit and the highest month average crude throughput since May 2013.
At this time, we remain committed to maintain the sustainability of our integrated oil company by continued management of our operating and capital costs, improving the integrity of our assets, improving our safety performance and developing the competence and skills of our employees.
For further information please contact:
The Corporate Communications Department
Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited
868-658-4200/10/20/30