With a mission to provide quality petroleum products and ancillary services across the petroleum industry of Trinidad and Tobago, the National Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd. (NP) has marked itself as the most diversified petroleum marketing company across the English-speaking Caribbean. NP, motivated by a relentless drive to deliver results for its customers, markets a range of products including petroleum fuels, lubricants, and grease, liquified petroleum gas (LPG), and compressed natural gas. However, NP strives not just to lead the industry with its vast array of petroleum businesses, but instead to play a vital role in the daily lives of those across Trinidad and Tobago through its operations.
In 1969, The National Petroleum Company was established by law due to new petroleum legislation that was enacted across the region. The Trinidad and Tobago National Petroleum Marketing Company was established following the government’s purchase of assets from the previously owned BP Caribbean Ltd which was the local marketing arm for BP across the region. Over the next few years, NP consolidated its role across the region and by 1976 was the sole distributor of petroleum fuels in Trinidad and Tobago through key acquisitions of Trinidad and Tobago Oil Company (formerly Shell Trinidad Ltd.) and TEXACO Trinidad Ltd. Now in 2023, NP is the most diverse petroleum marketing company in the region playing a vital role in the fuel industry. Furthermore, as a regional enterprise, it is seeking to establish itself as a trusted brand of world-class fuels and lubricants backed by a reputation for excellence.
NP’s operations are working to produce profitable revenue growth and maintain its market share by challenging conventional thinking across the petroleum industry and providing innovative ways of expanding its offerings to both local and regional markets. Furthermore, NP wants to be a brand that is ever present across the industry for its domestic and international customers through its excellent standards of service at service station forecourts to its work supplying fuel to the aviation and shipping industries. The most prominent way that NP is present in local communities is through its QuikShoppe and QuikShoppe Plus service stations. The QuikShop stores provide people from across the region with access to petrol to fuel their cars and other vehicles of transportation. It also provides a selection of convenience products and groceries ranging from everyday essentials to beverages and snacks. These service stations are one of the most prominent ways that local customers interact with NP on an everyday basis.
However, in an effort to expand this relationship between customer and NP, it has implemented a range of QuikShoppe Plus stations across the country, which not only provide the standard everyday essentials people may expect from NP, but also include a range of ‘read-to-go’ food and meal options. NP’s implementation of a wide variety of offerings across their service stations aside from the basic convenience products and petrol filling facilities, recognises the growing demand internationally for convenience stores to raise the bar in food-service offerings by providing easy and convenient meal services nationwide. Consequently, across the region, the QuikShoppe brand, whether that be their standard stations, ‘Plus’, or mini stores, plays a vital role in the daily lives of those in Trinidad and Tobago who are likely familiar with the brand across its 30+ current stores nationwide.
NP, however, fulfils an even broader range of services across Trinidad and Tobago. At NP’s core is its hub where a large majority of its petroleum businesses take place through its 22-acre bulk storage facility and head office located at Sea Lots, at the Port of Spain in Trinidad. NP provides a range of motor fuels, aviation fuels, marine bunkering, ultra lubricants, and LPG services. The company’s LPG cylinder assets exceed 1 million for 20lb cylinders and has over 350,000 for 100lb cylinders. Consequently, as the leading supplier of LPG for homes and businesses across Trinidad and Tobago its role in the everyday lives of many is crucial.
Under NP is NATPET Investments Company Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of NP, that operates a filling, testing and refurbishment plant which has earned a reputation of being a reliable producer of efficient energy and fuel solutions. Since its origins in 2004, NATPET has transformed the LPG sector for Trinidad and Tobago and remains a leading player providing a range of services. These services include the walk-in refilling service in which customers have the option to wait whilst their cylinders are refilled. Additional functions of NATPET include bulk transportation of LPG from refineries to its filling plant, inspection, testing and refurbishment of all cylinders entering and exiting the filling plant, filling LPG cylinders for domestic markets, sales of LPG cylinders to authorized distributors, as well as ensuring that there is an adequate, reliable, and safe supply of LPG available for domestic markets.
Alongside its LPG cylinder offerings, NP provides a range of internationally accredited motor oils for all classes of diesel and gasoline engines, as well as a range of automotive products. These products include ultra lubricants that adhere to internationally recognised quality standards, as determined by the American Petroleum Institute (API). Furthermore, NP has a Grease Plant which was first commissioned in 1986 and has a design capacity of 500 tonnes per annum. NP manufactures a wide range of engine, gear, and hydraulic oils through this plant and so can market both industrial and automatic lubricants which sees its products serve a diverse industry with engine oils, gear transmission and power steering fluids, and even coolants.
The final key aspect of NP’s operations is in its bunkering services which works to secure competitive rates and receive customised solutions for its customer’s bunkering needs. NP provides seamless operations with over 45 years of experience across the bunkering supply industry. Therefore, it is focused on providing the highest standards of marine fuels with reliability and stability. Consequently, NP Bunkering is one of the most respected marine fuel and lubricant trading companies in Trinidad and Tobago. The company has a proven heritage and currently services three categories of bunkering customers, providing them with flexible solutions and an exceptional quality of products through its superior value-added bunkering services.
National Petroleum Marketing Company is one that has heart and is focused on playing a key role in developing Trinidad and Tobago’s petroleum industry towards both local and international success. Through its operations across the industry including its service stations, Grease Plant and bunkering services, NP is building stronger relationships across markets as it reconfigures its strategy to improve the brand’s presence across the industry. As a purpose-led, state-affiliated agency it is striving to make a difference, which it seems to do successfully as it continues to make crucial decisions to pursue initiatives that maximise the positive benefits of the industry for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Therefore, with NP, they are with you for all of life’s journeys!
