National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd.

One of the most important companies on the islands, the Trinidad and Tobago National Petroleum Marketing Company Limited (NP) was created in 1972 with the assets the government purchased from the then BP Caribbean Ltd- which was the local arm of the British Petroleum Group. With a long line of stringent business decisions this company has validated its position for over forty years and shows signs that the next forty will see them in an even stronger position. Regards to this we caught up with Acting Chief Executive Officer Kevin Motilal.

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These purchases put NP into an enviable position, for when NP acquired the assets of Shell Trinidad Ltd, it also inherited its Lubricant Blending Plant at Sea Lots,

on the outskirts of Port-of-Spain and under this license, it continued to produce a range of lubricants, blended according to the Shell formulations, until the National Petroleum Brand of lubricants. This new brand was launched in 1981.

To further compliment these decisions, NP invests a great amount of effort into improving its product rating and into keeping itself abreast of all significant technological advancements occurring in the lubricants industry. Thanks to this rigorous pursuit of the highest standards of quality NP has been recognized by such organizations as the American Petroleum Institute (API), and the Trinidad and Tobago and Caribbean markets can be counted along some of the most advanced in the world.

Staffing ExcellenceHaving joined the company in 2000, Kevin explains how NP has

always been blessed by an abundance of experience and the highest standard of professionalism from every one of their employees.

“When the company was bought from the nationals they also brought over the people, so we found we had the experience straight from the start from people who had worked extensively with Shells, Texaco and Mobil,” he explains, “They all came together and then recruitment was pushed locally. This has meant that National Petroleum has always had the expertise from the multinationals and has managed to use this to our advantage since then.”

NATIONAL PETROLEUM MARKETING COMPANY LTD

“NP’s early development came about thanks to the Government investing and purchasing into a number of large conglomerates who had positions on the island,” Kevin opens up, “This including such things as a fifty percent of the inland marketing assets of ESSO Standard Oil in 1973 and the marketing assets for the Trinidad and Tobago Oil Company- formerly Shell Trinidad Limited, in ’76 which was followed a year later by the local marketing assets of Texaco Trinidad Ltd.”

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Although National Petroleum has had its fair share of challenges like any company, Kevin relates that they have been able to increase their revenues every year and he explains that the key to doing so is about taking every situation as and when it comes along which has created the opportunity for them to become talented at problem solving.

Customers“Our customer service is specialized and powerful,” Kevin attests,

“We service customers’ needs and trouble shoot for them. We also have training courses and technical seminars throughout the chain to ensure the best quality work from our staff, and this includes the people on the floor to the managers at the top.”

He goes on to explain that thanks to them having their own blending plant, they sell the basic products that are most needed and that it is easy for them to tweak the front product or their formulations to match their customer’s needs.

2014 has already promised a lot of potential for NP, “The market is good,” Kevin relates, “We are looking to further develop our twenty four hour Quick Shops, which have been supplementing our service station business since the late 90s. These have always provided a

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NATIONAL PETROLEUM MARKETING COMPANY LTD

“We ensure that LPG - liquefied petroleum gas - is available to all customers,” he says, “And we police and monitor our own manufacturing chain to ensure the best product and service for our customers.”

With self-sufficiency being high on their priorities, NP supports its LPG business with its own LPG Cylinder Filling Plant.

This year will also see NP making full use of their marine bunkering license, with which they do contract blending for companies such as Petcom and BP.

“We did a lot of promotions last year,” Kevin says, “So this year we will be consolidating the developments and exposure from these. The market is growing while we, over the last couple of years have not been keeping up with it. We’re focussed on getting back into new business with aggressive marketing. Of course there is a limited budget so we use it wisely, making sure we get our bang for the buck.”

“There is the same effort needed for a small sale as a big sale,” he continues, “So we aim for bigger customers in bigger markets to see greater financial results.”

And importantly is the ongoing thrust on promotions specifically for their convenience stores, which is the main focus rather than the

gas side. “On the lubricant sides we

are getting back into rallying and boat racing to get image out there,” he tells us, “The Boats Name is “Rush” and it’s a local vessel. It’s important to not only get the name out there but also to support local talent to help build the buzz. This will help us in our expansion plans where we want to use our expertise to get into the other islands. This is in progress through Haiti, Jamaica and Panama.”

Green FocusNP have been tinkering

around for a long time with green initiatives, on the liquid fuels they make use of CNG

direct access point for many of our customers because we can sell our own brand of lubricants as well as other essentials,”

Trinidad is very industrialized with a wide customer base and NP have created their own grease plant, which will be the only one in the region and will supply product to various industries such as oil rigs, refineries, small manufacturing plants and the transport industry. The aviation fuel business is a thriving one and is growing in strides thanks to the two busy airports of Trinidad and Tobago and they also own the license to sell LPG in Trinidad and Tobago under the Ultra and BluGas brands respectively.

NATIONAL PETROLEUM MARKETING COMPANY LTD

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compressed national gas which has less emissions, “We actually have three refuelling stations on the island and we supply CNG to eight stations and are looking at building a Shell station that would include CNG as option.”

Cars can be easily modified with a kit to make use of CNG as a primary of a hybrid method of fuelling and the government is currently looking into giving tax breaks for petrol and diesel cars that have a CNG kit.

Another push, both in media and in action is the recovery of lubricating oils, “Lubricants need to be disposed of in a certain fashion to keep them safe and to make it convenient we offer to take back used oil and we pay

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for disposal.” Finally, Kevin explains that

the main driving force of NP, something that is ingrained into their culture as a business is their ongoing mission to ensure the safe, reliable, convenient and economical availability of quality petroleum products throughout Trinidad and Tobago, “This is how we will continue for the next forty two years.”

We ensure that LPG - liquefied petroleum gas - is available to all customers. And we police and monitor our own manufacturing chain to ensure the best product and service for our customers.” Kevin Motilal, Acting Chief Executive Officer

“