The birth and growth of West Indies Petroleum Limited

The birth and growth of West Indies Petroleum Limited

J'can-owned company moves to expand and establish an international footprint

JAMAICA OBSERVER: May 28th, 2021
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Charles Chambers and Tarik Felix had something big in mind when they visited the north coast home of Gordon Shirley in 2012.

The visit was not only motivated by the desire to touch base and check in with Shirley, Chambers' friend of 25 years who was, at the time and remains, a businessman and petrol station operator in western Jamaica. Chambers and Felix had major plans and wanted Shirley's buy-in.

Their goal was to, within the space of a few years, become recognised and respected leaders in a field primarily dominated by overseas operators.

The men knew that fuel, of varying kinds, has long been the engine of civilisation and the mitochondrion of economies. Therefore, it made good sense to set up a company owned by Jamaicans that would not only enter the space of bunkering — which primarily involves the refuelling of vessels — but also move towards creating a foundation to expand into being regional leaders and one of the main suppliers of fuel to several key sectors.

They were also driven by entrepreneurial spirit, commitment to country and a sense of intrinsic belonging in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent global energy sector.

The pitch convinced Shirley to become chairman of the board of directors of West Indies Petroleum Limited (WIPL), which Felix and Chambers had registered and had incorporated as the year 2012 drew to a rapid close.

WIPL became operational in 2013 and has accomplished the vision of being one of the region's leading fuel companies, making major moves to expand and establish international footprints via partnership and collaboration with global sector leaders, including a leading British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the United Kingdom.

WIPL is also the only Jamaican company which does bunkering and one of few in Latin America and the Caribbean engaged in the activity on a large scale on the international scene.

Chambers, Shirley and Felix remain the primary shareholders and directors of the company which currently has five shareholders and five directors.

Chambers is a graduate of the famed Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1881 and is the business school of University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League university in Philadelphia.

Chambers, who has acquired a wealth of experience in investment banking, finance and the fuelling sector, has created a natural flow and segued into the provision of supplementary services to the maritime industry. He has spent most of his career working as an investment banker with regional banks such as Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), National Commercial Bank (NCB) and JMMB after graduating from Wharton School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance in 2001.

His training and practical expertise have, over the years, assisted WIPL's effort in the crucial area of generating capital. He has also built up an impressive array of overseas contacts, including fruitful engagement with multinationals and international cruise lines.

Felix has a bachelor's in psychology and has been in the commodity trading business since leaving university. He is regarded by his peers as having a unique eye for detail and highly competent in the maritime logistics field.

Felix is currently involved at the management, shareholding and directorship level at WIPL.

Shirley, who is known as the voice of reason and a shrewd businessman with a calming influence, has a lifetime of experience in the petroleum industry on the retail side of the business where he has been involved with his family's gasoline service station operation. He returned to Jamaica from the United States, and in 2003 also formed a company called GAS Investments which sold wholesale fuel to the retail fuel industry.

Company information describes Chambers, Felix and Shirley as “the dynamic Jamaican entrepreneurial trio with an undying love for their country, region and globe, who came together and pooled unique and diverse skill sets to not only pursue a highly successful business initiative, but are playing their part in contributing to enhanced national and regional energy security”.

Chambers is WIPL's chief executive officer, Shirley its board chairman and Felix oversees the day-to-day operations.

WIPL started out with an old in-shore barge and tug boat which it won via a bid and bought from the State-owned oil refinery Petrojam Jamaica Limited.

The founding shareholders and directors quickly got to work and during the first few months of its existence WIPL struck a deal which contracted it to refuel a carrier owned by Crystal Cruises. The cruise started out in one of Jamaica's tourism capitals, Montego Bay, and ventured further into the region along the Caribbean coast then returned to homeport in Montego Bay.

As Chambers and Shirley recall it, Harry Maragh from Lannaman and Morris played a key role in facilitating that deal which saw Crystal Cruises being supplied with heavy fuel oil (HFO) and diesel. The deal assisted in giving WIPL sustenance during the first few years of its existence.

During those years there were many challenges, but WIPL steadily navigated a sometimes arduous economic climate in Jamaica and recorded significant profits. However, the best was yet to come.

During the fiscal year 2016/2017, the company's principals acted on a recognition that if product supply was restricted to only servicing the bunkering market, WIPL would perhaps never be able to grow, expand and fulfil its true potential.

Consequently, the company's leadership moved expeditiously to expand its capacity and diversify its offerings. There existed a need for the entity to have its own storage facility with significant capacity.

Jamaica Broilers' willingness to sell its ethanol plant and fuel storage facility at Port Esquivel in St Catherine presented the perfect opportunity to consolidate strategic planning with decisive action. WIPL successfully negotiated a deal with Jamaica Broilers and bought the facility for over US$22 million.

As it aggressively pursued strategic expansion plans, the company also moved to acquire six acres in the vicinity of Kingston Harbour and 20 acres near the Falmouth Pier.

Chambers notes that the purchase from Jamaica Broilers was a key moment in the life of WIPL.

“The acquisition allowed us to expand our footprints in the fuel space. It was an important move which facilitated WIPL diversifying its offerings, moving from being primarily a bunkering entity to a genuine fuel/energy company which was able to store its products and distribute within Jamaica and across the region,” said Chambers.

“It allowed us to not only be restricted to HFO, which is colloquially known as dirty fuel, but importantly, to also service the market, including retail operators with clean products,” he added.

That deal with JB Ethanol resulted in WIPL not only being a major supplier of retail stations across the country, but moved the company into being only the third major local importer of fuel.

Bolstered by the ethanol storage plant purchase, West Indies Petroleum was now able to send significant portions of fuel to territories including Barbados, St Kitts, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Haiti.

The company's revenues multiplied from US$24 million a year in 2016 to over US$200 million in 2019.

During its approximately nine-year existence, WIPL has executed deals with a host of reputable energy companies including the US-based Castleton Commodities International CCI Energy Solutions.

In 2020, West Indies Petroleum made perhaps the most major move since its inception. The company struck an exclusive long-term agreement with BP (formerly British Petroleum) under which BP will become the product source for all of WIPL's operations including bunkering, retail fuel sales and bulk regional distribution.

The agreement has given WIPL the opportunity to supply not only bunkers, but various product lines across the Caribbean and Central America.

But what of the future of WIPL, an entity which contributes heavily to foreign exchange inflows into Jamaica, employs over 120 people and is driven by Jamaicans who are determined to make a difference and leave a legacy of excellence in the increasingly important energy sector.

“We recently added to our board complement, Eric Evans and Amanda Levien, two team members who are based in the United States and have significant industry experience and a reputation for excellence on the international stage, and that's no coincidence,” Chambers said.

“WIPL will continue its expansion in a major way. We intend to play our part in overhauling the supply of some countries which have a high dependency on sources of energy which are not cost-effective and not environmentally friendly. We are making moves in this regard and expect related announcements to be made in the months and years to come,” he added.

“We have firmly set our sights on collaborating with the Government of Jamaica and pursuing ideas which could assist in reducing the electricity bills of Jamaicans by over 30 per cent. More will be said on that at a later date,” he said.

“West Indies Petroleum is moving from strength to strength, and in so doing we are committed to assisting not only Jamaica but also other countries across the region to develop in a meaningful way, including by being able to have a reliable and clean fuel supply and consequently achieving the very important goal of sustainable and credible energy security,” Chambers said.

Headshots & Terminal Photo Credit: Michele-Anne Hamilton | MichLanPhoto.com
Aerial Photos Credit: Tom Bryan