Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

For those of us who were too young to see or remember the original Star Trek series, this was a good movie. For those we were fans this will not be so good. For those who were fanatics, it really would not matter.

The movie starts off with two of the protagonists running from a tribal people on another planet. The two protagonists appear to have stolen some sort of holy scroll from the people and were running through the forest with it irreverently.

As an aside, I can't resist the temptation to warn my American movie-making brethren that although you do not see it, putting things like this in your movies lay the sub-conscious foundation for terrorist recruiters to recruit. You're making it easy for them to fathom that Americans might burn a Quran. The creation, albeit fictitious, of a Star Fleet whose mission is to save the world, and of course is American-run, does not help either.

I'm guessing World War Z, which I have not yet seen, is also going to feature Brad Pitt and the US military saving the world, and I'm not sure how much good that does either, but let's stick to reviewing the movie.

So it turns out, the Star Trek ship, Enterprise, saves the indigents' planet and Spock and Captain Kirk are summoned to the boss' office. Captain Kirk is fired because he broke the rules saving Spock's life. He gets his job back eventually after John Harrison (Khan) kills his replacement. Don't try to make sense out of this. It gets cheesier and cheesier. For example, later on, the boss' daughter also sneaks into the ship and Captain Kirk sees her in her underwear, and the whole flirting thing happens right down to the end.

It turns out Khan, one of the villains is defeated, and Kirk is revived after giving his life for cheddar, sorry, for his crew. That's about all I'm wiling to write about this movie.

Star Trek fans have already gone to see it. If you have some time on your hands, Star Trek Into Darkness could be a good flick.

(L-R) TTHTI Chairman William Aguiton, TTHTI Executive Director Patricia Butcher, and Hilton General Manager Leroy Browne.


The Hilton Trinidad and Conference Center has agreed to partner with the T&T Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI) on a range of training activities, Heather John, TTHTI marketing and customer service manager said in an e-mailed statement on April 25.

"On Friday April 5, 2013, the general manager of the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Center (Leroy Browne) agreed to partner with the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI), recognising it as the training institute of choice for the industry," the statement said.

She said the TTHTI and Hilton Trinidad "have had a long and fruitful relationship and the hotel has agreed to continue to be an integral part of the institute’s guest lecture series so that culinary, and food & beverage students will be exposed to resource persons who are experts in their fields."

She said that as part of the partnership, Hilton Trinidad will accept students from TTHTI as interns for one-month periods of training. "This is in keeping with a critical part of the students’ study at the institute where they are attached to various facilities so that they can put their theoretical knowledge into practice," she said.

In addition, she said, the TTHTI will continue to be the provider of choice for additional manpower whenever the hotel is hosting large functions that require additional "properly trained" staff.

She said that as a tertiary level educational institution, the mission of which is "to develop human resources capable of providing services at international standards of excellence," forging partnerships with hotels that are known and recognised, is important. TTHTI is an industry-driven institution, and as such ensures that its students are given every opportunity to interact with top brands such as Hilton Trinidad and Conference Center."

REPSOL'S PRODUCTION UP 11%

Spanish integrated oil and gas company, Repsol, said it was able to produce 11 per cent higher in the first quarter of 2013 thanks in part to "better volumes from T&T." Speaking during a conference call after the release of the company's first quarter 2013 results in Madrid, Repsol Chief Financial Officer Miguel Martinez said: "Production output was 36,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboed), 11 per cent higher than in the first quarter 2012. Since five out of the 10 keep growth projects of the strategic plan 2012-2016 have come on stream, together with better volumes from T&T. We are confident that we will achieve the 10 per cent average growth targeted for 2015. Incremental production will come from the ramp up of Mid-Continent in the U.S. and Sapinhoa in Brazil and the start you of our Phase 2 to of Margarita in Bolivia. On the other hand, Kinteroni is already technically prepared to come on stream, but the delay is mainly due to the negotiation with the final contractor arrangements to be completed with the common share partnership and Trinidad will under go planned maintenance."

The increased production volumes had a positive impact of €72 million, he said. For Repsol, crude prices remained flat while gas prices increased by 26 per cent having a positive effect of €43 million. Increased depreciation charges had a negative impact of €45 million. "Depreciation charges per barrel are higher in the early stage of production," Martinez said.

"We also have cost increases of €63 million mainly due the new production of Sapinhoa in Brazil and the startup of the new projects in Russia. Sapinhoa produced 20,000 barrels per day in gross terms during the quarter, but bears the cost of an FPSO (floating production storage and offloading ship) with the capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. Two additional production wells will be connected before year end," he said.

T&T again came up during the call when analyst Anish Kapadia from Tudor Pickering Holt asked: "On T&T, it’s the largest producing asset in your portfolio. We’ve seen the reserve life that fall down to seven years at what’s now a reduced production rate. Just wondering how much of a concern that is and how you see production over the next few years?"

To which Martinez responded: "In relation to T&T, I mean, we are at plateau there and I think we have reserves in our books for the next seven years of production, approximately."

Kapadia then asked if a fairly significant decline should be expected from T&T over the next few years. Martinez answered: "No, the only variance that you will see throughout the year will be due to maintenance. There were some maintenance expected for the first quarter that has been delayed for the second one, but as I mentioned, we are at a plateau, and I don’t see any decline in T&T production other than those that are forced by maintenance."

In conversation with Santander analyst, Jason Kenney, Martinez said Repsol is getting US$20 per million British thermal units (mmbtu). He said: "I think that the only difference that the (analysts') consensus have with us in this quarter, was our North American liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets. I mean the rest of them were really accurate and probably nobody was expecting, too, that we will be selling gas in the Eastern Coast US$20 per million Btu."

NORTH AMERICA

Repsol's North American LNG also exceeded expectations. Global financial services company, Morgan Stanley described Repsol's results at the end of the 2013 first quarter as "aided by ‘one-off’ LNG strength" and said the net income was driven by "stand-out LNG result."

Morgan Stanley called Repsol's results "impressive." In a report authored by Martijn Rats, Jamie Maddock, Robert Pulleyn, Haythem Rashed (who attended the conference call), Sasikanth Chilukuru, Aaditya Chintalapati and Paul Loudon, Morgan Stanley said: "Repsol reported adjusted net income of €676 million, an impressive 25 per cent higher than (analysts') consensus expectations of €540 million. At the operating level, Repsol beat expectations by 15 per cent. Whilst all three divisions delivered better than expected results, the LNG division was particularly strong delivering a record €311 million in adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT). The business benefited from strong profitability in North America where a cold winter supported better margins and volumes. In total, the North American business accounted for €129 million or over 40 per cent of the overall LNG result. The company has indicated it does not expect to repeat this result on a sustainable basis. Full year 2012 operating income from the North American LNG division was around €63 million."