Diversification! Oil prices falling!

[sMASH]

What cz4a saying is correct. What u all SHOULD fear is the generation of entitled that the vote focused budgets managed to foster. The reality we need, we don't have the citizenry to ride it through. When his generation still want their high life living but don't have access to easy cash, they're not going to roll up their sleeves and toil for it. They gonna roll down their ski masks, pull up their bandanas and take it from the haves.

Fossil fuel prices not going to go ipsl to where hey were before in the near future, so revenue not going to be as easy to get. It might actually take a whole other generation of living with tightened belts to get a citizenry able to cope with this meager economy.

Until then, its gonna be a little like the purge.

[bluesclues]

sing more of these songs and i may enter the election ring next cycle.

revenue diversification to reduce dependence on oil? talking about that years now. heck my diversification program wouldve begun since 2000.

borrowing money on the backs of the children of the future, risking them to live like slaves so the old btches living now could have a good time? called it years now. borrowing money on promised energy income in a market at risk of losing all its value was always a bad risk. every budget, deficit spending. predicted it the day howai was selected because i understand the corporate MO its solution practices, its mentors and why it fails.

in the end. i have all the solutions to trinidad problems in my back pocket. including the methods that can help to shape a new culture and mentality. increasing efficiency in operations and thus productivity. i have the jobs, the export sector and somee programs i wont mention right now.

what i doing? waiting till allyuh trinis fedup run back and forth from bad to worse politicians. when allyuh really tired and fedup of the hoodwinking u are victims of by those major parties on the podium. when allyuh wakeup and resent allyuh own old ways. then.. then i will offer my services to this country on the podium.

[sMASH]

U struck upon another key to the problem in Trini, is not that we voting for people to solve the problems, is we voting for we tribe.
All d talk about this one better at this hst that one is just talk. Most of us still vote for our tribe.

And because of how our governing body is set up, only tribe leaders can reach to the top.

So thr people who don't vote tribe have nobody to vote for.

Even if they do get people.to vote for, more people.vote tribe, so a tribesman will always lead the country.

[The_Honourable]

Oil prices $44.00 so far.

[Redman]

I hope that we start to discuss a smaller leaner more efficient government...

[The_Honourable]

Public service job cuts?

[Daran]

We just need to focus more on tourism, we have such unexplored potential with that. But trinis need to come off their high horses before we can be good hosts.

But truthfully aside from some eco tourism and carnival, Trinidad does not offer much. Tobago is a gold mine that can be much improved.

[pugboy]

tourism suffering worldwide, go ask Barbados how they doing
sure there is money in tourism but it is not the country saver that people make it out to be

[Dizzy28]

We just need to focus more on tourism, we have such unexplored potential with that. But trinis need to come off their high horses before we can be good hosts.

But truthfully aside from some eco tourism and carnival, Trinidad does not offer much. Tobago is a gold mine that can be much improved.

Everyone keeps harping on Carnival as our Tourism product. Look at the figures. The months with Carnival are not even within the top three busiest arrival periods in Trinidad. That would be the months of July August and December.

Further breakdown shows a significant portion of the people coming for Carnival are diaspora who stay with friends and family consequently not making use of local hotels and guesthouses and even taxi services. (The fully booked hotels around that time do indicate that we have a dearth of hotel room stock though)

Carnival isn't as attractive to non diaspora foreigners as Trinidadians like to think it is.

[UML]

We just need to focus more on tourism, we have such unexplored potential with that. But trinis need to come off their high horses before we can be good hosts.

But truthfully aside from some eco tourism and carnival, Trinidad does not offer much. Tobago is a gold mine that can be much improved.

Everyone keeps harping on Carnival as our Tourism product. Look at the figures. The months with Carnival are not even within the top three busiest arrival periods in Trinidad. That would be the months of July August and December.

Further breakdown shows a significant portion of the people coming for Carnival are diaspora who stay with friends and family consequently not making use of local hotels and guesthouses and even taxi services. (The fully booked hotels around that time do indicate that we have a dearth of hotel room stock though)

Carnival isn't as attractive to non diaspora foreigners as Trinidadians like to think it is.

More importantly how much money is spent on carnival and our "culture" is alarming.

The NCC fails to calculate if we make a profit or continuous loss every year for carnival.

[EmilioA]

We just need to focus more on tourism, we have such unexplored potential with that. But trinis need to come off their high horses before we can be good hosts.

But truthfully aside from some eco tourism and carnival, Trinidad does not offer much. Tobago is a gold mine that can be much improved.

Everyone keeps harping on Carnival as our Tourism product. Look at the figures. The months with Carnival are not even within the top three busiest arrival periods in Trinidad. That would be the months of July August and December.

Further breakdown shows a significant portion of the people coming for Carnival are diaspora who stay with friends and family consequently not making use of local hotels and guesthouses and even taxi services. (The fully booked hotels around that time do indicate that we have a dearth of hotel room stock though)

Carnival isn't as attractive to non diaspora foreigners as Trinidadians like to think it is.

More importantly how much money is spent on carnival and our "culture" is alarming.

The NCC fails to calculate if we make a profit or continuous loss every year for carnival.

Even the 5 years UNC was in power ? How come ?

[gastly369]

BuyingOleIronOleBatteryBuying..

[desifemlove]

We just need to focus more on tourism, we have such unexplored potential with that. But trinis need to come off their high horses before we can be good hosts.

But truthfully aside from some eco tourism and carnival, Trinidad does not offer much. Tobago is a gold mine that can be much improved.

tourism ent jus beach, sand, and drinks. tours of the swamps for one, turtle watching, pitch lake jus some examples.

[Daran]

We just need to focus more on tourism, we have such unexplored potential with that. But trinis need to come off their high horses before we can be good hosts.

But truthfully aside from some eco tourism and carnival, Trinidad does not offer much. Tobago is a gold mine that can be much improved.

Everyone keeps harping on Carnival as our Tourism product. Look at the figures. The months with Carnival are not even within the top three busiest arrival periods in Trinidad. That would be the months of July August and December.

Further breakdown shows a significant portion of the people coming for Carnival are diaspora who stay with friends and family consequently not making use of local hotels and guesthouses and even taxi services. (The fully booked hotels around that time do indicate that we have a dearth of hotel room stock though)

Carnival isn't as attractive to non diaspora foreigners as Trinidadians like to think it is.

You're dead right, but Carnival is still a revenue generating industry that creates employment and productivity in the from music, parties, hotel, carnival bands, costumes, service and suppliers etc.

However, our local organization, service and marketing of Carnival is abysmal. My aunt came down coincidentally (she does not play mas) on carnival Friday and she said Piarco airport was a sterile, empty and painfully slow in immigration. No carnival decorations, welcome party etc. Only outside the arrivals area was there a hint that is was carnival in Trinidad.

Foreigners (not trinis) who came down to play mas in Fantasy this year were left extremely bitter, after firstly having to beg to get into the band, then have no ability to accept credit cards for costume payment (online), then only to be disappointed even more when half of their costumes weren't ready for carnival tuesday. This year it's even worse as if you're not in the country you can't register for Frontline costumes. Harts and a few other bands push forward with proper costumer service, but almost every other band is representation of our third world service.

Carnival may be the greatest show on earth to drunk trinis, but it needs vast improvement before marketing it internationally.

That said, it's one of the few things we have to offer, hence why I mentioned it up there with Eco-Tourism.

Food Tourism is another thing we can offer, seems like the entire Ministry of Tourism has been sleeping in Trinidad for the last 50 years.

[janfar]

http://oilpro.com/post/18754/another-ro ... icle_3_txt


And as we speak Baker Hughes is laying off 250+ ppl from their German facility. They also closed 4 facilities last week.

[daas]

BuyingOleIronOleBatteryBuying..

Gets me every time

[daas]

Btw the tourism industry in Trinidad is a joke. They spew the same verbal diarrhea all the time but they ain't ready to effect any kind of meaningful change. And don't even get started on Tourism and crime because until they get the crime situation under control they can't seriously expect people to visit, not in the numbers they project at least.

[Numb3r4]

To be honest I don't understand why we still harp on carnival so much, because to me I get the feeling that a sizable amout of the population just don't care about it. If the general population can't be bothered why are we clinging to it? I mean for me it is a part of our history as a celebration, but honestly the manner it is presented certainly does not represent our heritage. I think if we take it back to the more traditonal forms of mas then we can make more of an attempt to engage a greater segment of the population and get more local participation, not to mention we might be able to sell it better if we make it more "folksy". Let's face it with what we have now Rio does it better. So we can't compete, but if we bring back the greater level of artisitic integrity maybe we can attract a more savy/cosmopolitan crowd who are at the least interested in it as an artform.

[Numb3r4]

I just want to say that I am not a carnival basher, but hoenestly to spend so much on it with so little in return is not justified, especially in doing so we are not preserving our culture and heritage. If you have to spend then at a loss then prwserve the culture and artistic integrity.

[Numb3r4]

With regards to diversification in general, well as my mother says "I've been hering that since I was young...and that was in the fifty's, they haven't done anything since. Boom came and gone nothing, what do we have to show."

Diversifiying not only takes time but it may require a lot of capital expediture and investments to be made, have we done any of this? One good point is that we are suposed to have an educated workforce, so that is a plus. But other that that, do we have what it takes finacially to diversify at this point? Do we have the time and cash reserves to wait out the time it takes for such investments to bear fruit?

To this date we still face problems relating to worker productivity, diversification means that we are going to have to burn the midnight oil are we ready for that? Diversification in not public support for policy or simply saying that we are diversifying, it means that the population must be willing to sacrifice for the greater good, they must be able to strike out on their own an be confident about their ability to be successful.

Effectively if you fail to prepare then prepare to fail.

[Miktay]

Diversification doesn't and hasnt worked.

The reason why it doesnt work is that its left to the wrong people.

Government can't diversify an economy.

[Numb3r4]

True as Miktay said, it may be very difficult for a cumbersome and bureaucratic organization like the government to diversify the economy.

Diversification can best happen quicker at the private sector level, however it needs help, this is where government comes in with policy and such.

Going back to what I said earlier the population must be wiling to try and pay for things that are new an innovative and they must support it out of their own pockets.

Take silicon valley in the U.S. a hotbed of diversity and this has helped the US stay ahead of the game, following this many countries sought to create their own versions of silicon valley to promote the culture in their respective countries.

In the U.S.this is a good example of the ability of the private sector to create its own industry and then it grows, but then again they have a highly educated workforce and access to a large market that will patronize. It also speaks to the mentality of their workforce they don't wait for a handout they got up and got.

Fast track to us what do we do....we expect the government to do everything...

Now given the situation we are in some government assistance would be nice, as mentioned before policy that encourages entrepreneurs (eg tax breaks for start-ups for a certain number of years like what the state of New York did). You may want to subsidize certain thing to promote the growth of particular industries (eg subsidize solar cells promoting Eco-friendly energy alternatives).

Begin the process of moving away from traditional resources to marketing your human capital....although that relies on a very stable, predictable, hardworking, devoted, meticulous work force that can see and embrace the big picture, one that is not bogged down daily by the hangups of a society that can't seem to get basic public services right.

[The_Honourable]

Government revenue down 19% due to falling oil prices

[Numb3r4]

Don't think we can handle tourism, we're still confusing service and servitude.

[bluesclues]

ah tell dem sell d fakkin oil years now inno.

[silent_riot]

Good reporting by Judy Kanhai, but inaccurate headline.

Just to clarify terminology: "Government Energy Revenue" and "Government Revenue" are two different figures in public finance. So it is confusing when the two are used interchangeably, as in this headline. Government Revenue from Oct 2013-May 2014 was TT$34.7B, while Government Revenue from Oct 2014-May 2015 was TT$34.1B. This is a 1.7% decrease. Government Expenditure for the same period increased by 1.6%. Government Energy revenue did decrease by 19.1%

Consider that only 19.1% of energy revenue was lost when the oil price dropped by 51% from $97 to $47.

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

Good reporting by Judy Kanhai, but inaccurate headline.

Just to clarify terminology: "Government Energy Revenue" and "Government Revenue" are two different figures in public finance. So it is confusing when the two are used interchangeably, as in this headline. Government Revenue from Oct 2013-May 2014 was TT$34.7B, while Government Revenue from Oct 2014-May 2015 was TT$34.1B. This is a 1.7% decrease. Government Expenditure for the same period increased by 1.6%. Government Energy revenue did decrease by 19.1%

Consider that only 19.1% of energy revenue was lost when the oil price dropped by 51% from $97 to $47.

Makes sense when the government main revenue is based on gas prices which haven't changed as much as oil.

The discussion however from the politicians towards the public is simplification. The budget is based in the price of oil cuz the public eh gonna understand if it based on gas prices. Oil prices mainly affect petrotrin.

Finally, anyone can be a reporter and then editor. That's why u will find misleading articles such as this one.

[nervewrecker]

Good reporting by Judy Kanhai, but inaccurate headline.

Just to clarify terminology: "Government Energy Revenue" and "Government Revenue" are two different figures in public finance. So it is confusing when the two are used interchangeably, as in this headline. Government Revenue from Oct 2013-May 2014 was TT$34.7B, while Government Revenue from Oct 2014-May 2015 was TT$34.1B. This is a 1.7% decrease. Government Expenditure for the same period increased by 1.6%. Government Energy revenue did decrease by 19.1%

Consider that only 19.1% of energy revenue was lost when the oil price dropped by 51% from $97 to $47.

Makes sense when the government main revenue is based on gas prices which haven't changed as much as oil.

The discussion however from the politicians towards the public is simplification. The budget is based in the price of oil cuz the public eh gonna understand if it based on gas prices. Oil prices mainly affect petrotrin.

Finally, anyone can be a reporter and then editor. That's why u will find misleading articles such as this one.

Low oil prices isn't beneficial to PETROTRIN in a way? They buy oil to refine.
By products prices remain the same, raw material (oil) is cheaper so therefore larger profits? I donno, I asking.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Allergic2BunnyEars]

It isn't beneficial to part of petrotrin. Exploration and production side depending on the price of oil. I don't know the break even figure.

Refinery cares less generally about the actual price of oil and more with the margins between oil price and product price. It's why the company can be in sheit at both $110 per barrel and at 50. One side props up the other depending on how the market is. It's a strength for petrotrin because low oil prices can sink other oil companies which focus just on oil production.

[Redman]

The problem is that a 5% margin(just a number) for refining 1M barrels of oil at 100 USD per barrel yields a higher number of dollars than the same margin and volume at 50.

It sounds obvious but while the running cost remain the same quantity...(or a higher % of the lower WTI price) the 5% margin yields less dollars to cover cost..So the refining is under pressure...
Theoretically the E&P services move with oil prices...so there is some compression in the cost of drilling etc.....rig prices come down etc...but its still tight.

I think local onshore cost was about $20 a BBL to bring oil to surface.