TT still a player in platform construction

This country may have lost to Mexico last year in the bid to fabricate bpTT’s Angelin platform but it’s being considered for fabrication of the Cassia C platform.

The announcement comes from BPTT Regional President Norman Christie who was speaking on Monday during the opening ceremony of the 2018 Energy Conference, Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain.

“Cassia C is still in the planning stage. We are currently reviewing all options, including local fabrication. However, any decision to build locally will depend on how competitive the local fabrication industry becomes.” Christie also said BPTT would take a delegation to Mexico very soon as part of its commitment to knowledge transfer to improve TT’s competitiveness.

In April 2017, subsequent to protests in La Brea during the early stages of Juniper’s fabrication – which caused delays – BPTT said “given the compressed project timelines and other competitiveness factors for the Angelin project, local fabrication is no longer a feasible option.” Christie said this occurred “because of inadequate collaboration. We must learn from our experiences.”

Energy Minister Franklin Khan – who is part of the Mexico delegation – said he intends to hold a town meeting in La Brea upon his return. “(Angelin) is well ahead of schedule...La Brea has every reason to benefit from platform fabrication (so) the community now must put pressure on the people who tend to stymie that initiative.”

Khan also said as government seeks to attract more investment, local companies must become more reliable and competitive, especially on labour-related issues and delivery time lines. Revenue leakage, particularly from transfer pricing of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, is another critical area of focus.

“By next week, we’ll be confronting the offtakers on this very important issue because (we’re) talking about significant revenue, billions of US dollars, leaking out of this country (when) government is borrowing a billion dollars a month, virtually, to fund its budget.”

Government has hired an international energy consultant to deal with this and is in the process of drafting legislation “to address transfer pricing and to clarify current tax laws as they relate to artificial and non-arm’s length transactions. This legislation will be tabled in Parliament during 2018.”

Declaring “the State has a sovereign right to extract a fair economic rent” for use of depleting oil and gas resources, Khan said government makes no apologies for moving to do so.