Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 45 2022

LatAmOil TRINIDAD & TOBAGO LatAmOil

Heritage Petroleum reports on tax

payments to Port of Spain in FY 2022

HERITAGE Petroleum Co. Ltd, Trinidad front, he told the newspaper. “We are proud to
and Tobago’s state-owned oil company, paid be a major net earner of foreign exchange and a
TTD4.8bn ($707.61mn) in taxes to the govern- major contributor to the government’s tax reve-
ment during Fiscal Year 2022. This sum is equiv- nues,” he commented.
alent to 8.85% of Port of Spain’s total tax receipts Quamina continued: “Moreover, based on
during the fiscal year, which ran from October our ambitious drilling programme in 2022,
1, 2021 to September 30, 2022. which saw nine successful wells drilled on land
In a preliminary report published last week, and one quite successful well offshore and with
Heritage said that it had earned gross revenues 11 wells carded to be drilled onshore and six
of TTD10.2bn ($1.504bn) and had collected offshore in 2023, along with a robust 2023-2025
after-tax profits of TTD1.4bn ($206.39mn) in forward drilling programme with additional
FY 2022. It also noted that the exploration and prospect leads being matured at this time, the
production unit of Petrotrin, its now-defunct company is on a very healthy path and well
subsidiary, had covered all of its financing costs placed to meet without assistance its very sig-
in the same period, including annual commit- nificant loan commitments which become due
ments of TTD1.2bn ($176.9mn). in 2023.” ™
The Business Guardian newspaper, which
viewed a copy of the report, did not provide any
comparative data on Heritage’s performance in
FY 2021. However, it indicated that the compa-
ny’s results had helped boost the government’s
tax receipts in FY 2022.
About a week before the publication of the
preliminary data, it noted, Finance Minister
Colm Imbert announced that the Board of
Inland Revenue had finalised the country’s
tax receipts for FY 2022. At the time, Imbert
said that Trinidad and Tobago had collected
TTD54.21bn ($7.99bn) in total revenues. This
figure was TTD2.57bn ($378.87mn) up on the
revised figure published in September 2022 and
TTD10.88bn ($1.604bn) above the original esti-
mate of TTD43.33bn ($6.39bn) for FY 2022, he
stated.
When contacted by Business Guardian,
Michael Quamina, the chairman of Heritage,
made the link between the company’s perfor-
mance and tax receipts explicit. Heritage has
surpassed all expectations on the financial Heritage’s tax payments were higher than forecast in FY 2022 (Photo: Heritage)

Trinidad and Tobago reportedly in talks

with US on request to use Venezuelan gas

THE US government has reportedly agreed for the Atlantic LNG plant.
to discuss Trinidad and Tobago’s request for a Port of Spain has asked Washington several
waiver from the sanctions laws that discourage times to authorise talks with Caracas on access
investment in Venezuela’s oil sector in order to to offshore natural gas fields, but its requests
facilitate the search for new sources of feedstock have generally gone unanswered.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 45 09•November•2022