Last Friday afternoon, when most of T&T had their eyes firmly glued on Lara and Bravo in the Queen’s Park Oval, a small ceremony took place at the Labidco platform fabrication yard to celebrate the completion of construction on another off-shore platform.

This time the ceremony was for the Oilbird Platform, which will soon be installed off Trinidad’s east coast for EOG Resources (winner of the STCIC’s Upstream Producer award in 2005).

The prime contractor for the platform was Trinidad Offshore Fabricators (Tofco) a joint venture between Chet Morrison Contractors from Louisiana and the Trinidadian company Weldfab (winner of the STCIC Energy Service Company award in 2005), but a large number of other local service companies also played a significant role in the design and construction of the facility.

The Oilbird Platform is the third off-shore platform to be built at the fabrication yard at Labidco, with Tofco also building the Cannonball facility for bpTT and Damus the Kairi 1 platform for BHPB.

Work is already underway for two further platforms for bpTT. The Oilbird Platform is significantly larger and more complex that the two previous platforms built at Labidco, with an 1,800 ton deck and a 1,300 ton jacket.

As with previous projects, the quality of the welding and other work conducted in Trinidad met or surpassed international standards and the platform was built on time and within budget.

Perhaps just as significantly the platform was built with zero loss time incidents, indicating very high health and safety performance. In addition to the physical work conducted on site in Labidco the majority of the detailed engineering design for the project was also carried-out in Trinidad, mainly by the Neal & Massy/Wood Group joint venture.

Given these facts and with three platforms completed and two in progress it would appear that T&T is well on the way of achieving the objective of building a sustainable off-shore facility fabrication industry.

At present companies are still paying a premium for carrying-out the work in Trinidad, mainly because of lower productivity levels. This means that continued Government commitment to the local content policy is an important factor in encouraging the major customers to continue to make the decision to carry-out the work in Trinidad, rather than in the traditional locations on the US Gulf Coast.

The hope from both the Government and the companies is obviously that as T&T gains more experience and capacity in this area, costs will decrease and the industry will become truly globally competitive. In this way the premium paid to conduct the work here could be considered an investment, rather than simply an increased cost.

Already there are some significant advantages that T&T possess over other locations, not least the fact that we tend not to be adversely impacted by the hurricanes that have been so disruptive to activity on the US Gulf Coast.

With a high global energy prices and on-going efforts from all producers globally to bring more production on stream, combined with continuing repair works, there are significant capacity constraints on the US Gulf Coast.

The objective for the local industry should eventually be to take advantage of these opportunities to design and construct offshore facilities for developments outside of T&T. Our geographical proximity to both Latin America and West Africa could prove to be an advantage in this regard.

In his feature address at Friday’s Oilbird completion ceremony, Professor Ken Julien made much of the fact that the platform fabrication industry was based in La Brea.

He highlighted the fact that the La Brea area had a long history of involvement with the energy sector, but over recent decade had seen a significant decline in its fortunes along with the decline in the traditional onshore oil industry.

He emphasised the fact that the new fabrication yard and the coming heavy industrial development represent a significant new opportunity for the area, in terms of economic activity, job creation and skills development.

Prof Julien acknowledged that significant infrastructural development was needed in the area in order to both support the industrial development taking place and to meet the needs of the resident communities.

The existing road network in the area is woefully inadequate even for current needs, and significant improvements will also be needed to the water, electricity and telecommunications infrastructure.

Opportunities must be created for support services to be established in and around new industries, not just for plant maintenance or contractors, but also for things such as housing and hotels, schools and training institutes, restaurants, banks and professional services.

According to Prof Julien, a south-west peninsular development plan has been completed by the Government.

This plan seeks to address the concerns expressed from many quarters about how the heavy industrial development is going to be integrated into the area in such a way to improve people’s standard of living and to protect and enhance the environment.

This development plan needs to be given wide circulation and forums need to be created for open dialogue and discussion on the plans, especially given the environmental concerns raised about the proposed aluminium smelters.

On June 6 the Honourable Minister of Planning and Development is due to make a presentation to the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce on the Government’s development plans for south Trinidad. This will provide one such forum for a discussion of these plans.

In the meantime, we can celebrate the achievements of the new platform fabrication industry (including the engineering design work) in T&T and look forward to further activity in this sub-sector.