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World Environment Day 2007 celebrated at Petrotrin

Executive Chairman
Malcolm Jones

Petrotrin celebrated World Environment Day on May 29^th 2007 with an impressive ceremony at the Pointe-a-Pierre Club that included a presentation from world renowned climatologist and Professor at the University of Montreal, Professor Bhawan Singh who gave a lecture on this year’s theme: “Melting Ice- A Hot Topic”. 

The occasion was also used to donate GLOBE environmental monitoring kits to several schools in Trinidad as well as to recognise Petrotrin employees and teams who had achieved excellence as far as the environment is concerned. There was also a comprehensive visual display comprising of charts photographs and graphs depicting Petrotrin’s efforts in adapting to climate change over the last ten years.

Professor Bhawan Singh gave a very enlightening presentation that demonstrated the effects of the steady increase in temperature on the

world’s climate, oceans, freshwater supplies and indeed the entire ecosystem of the planet. He showed that melting polar is contributing to rising sea levels and that this in turn would affect island economies, aquatic life and more. He praised Petrotrin for our proactive efforts to grapple with Climate Change.

Professor Bhawan Singh

Executive Chairman Malcolm Jones gave an update on Petrotrin’s response to Climate Change. He told the audience: “We at Petrotrin have accepted the reality of climate change and we have provided resources to conduct a number of scientific studies on the potential impacts of climate change and adaptation and mitigation measures required. Petrotrin has been in the forefront in the Caribbean in taking a proactive approach in response to climate change and sea level rise.” 

He pointed out that the Corporate HSE Department has identified several key

Kelvin Ramnath

projects such as Vulnerability Assessment Surveys to Climate Change Driven Sea Level Rise in Trinmar, Oropouche Field and Pointe-a-Pierre. He said that storm surge modelling of the Trinmar fields and the Point Fortin Coast was conducted. He provided details about several HSE initiatives that have been undertaken at the Company. These include Greenhouse Gas Inventory Emission studies and the installation of two Weather Stations at the Corporate HSE building and at the Oil Spill Emergency Response Management Centre at Pointe-a-Pierre.

“One of our most important initiatives has been the development, implementation and certification of an Environmental Management System throughout our operations in conformance with the internationally acclaimed ISO 14001: 2004 Standard,” Mr. Jones informed the audience. “A similar system is being implemented in our refinery facilities. Petrotrin is proud to have maintained this international accreditation since 2001 and we are committed to further improvement within our operations.” 

The Executive Chairman pointed our that one of the main reasons for undertaking the Gasoline Optimization Program at the Pointe-a-Pierre Refinery over the next three years was to provide cleaner, more environmentally friendly gasoline to the local and international markets.

He touched on the Company’s work in sensitising the Nation’s Youth about environmental issues.

He said: “We are pleased to be a major player in educating tomorrow’s leaders on the importance of the environment and the impacts arising out of Global Warming and Climate Change. To date we have donated sixty three GLOBE kits to the schools of this country and trained over ninety eight teachers.

He gave full details on at least seven initiatives that the Company has undertaken for World Environment Day 2007.

These include the distribution of trees to all employees; poster displays on climate change throughout Petrotrin; Newspaper advertisements on climate issues; poster painting competitions for the children of employees; photography competitions; employee quiz on Climate Change and a Film festival featuring Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. 

He concluded: “At Petrotrin we will continue to work passionately in managing our environment so that we provide a priceless legacy for the future generations.”