PM visits TOFCO with BPTT

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley visited the TOFCO fabrication yard in La Brea on Friday with BPTT team, led by regional president Claire Fitzpatrick, to view fabrication of the jacket and bridge landing for the company's Cassia C project.

Cassia C is BPTT's next platform and part of the the Cassia Compression development, which will access one trillion cubic feet of hydrocarbon resources.

The jacket and bridge are currently being fabricated at TOFCO while the topsides and bridge link are being constructed in Altamira, Mexico. The Cassia Compression development will enable BPTT to access and produce low pressure gas reserves from currently-producing fields in the Greater Cassia Area, maximising recovery from these existing resources, the company said in a release Friday.

The project was sanctioned in 2018 and is expected to come online in 2021. McDermott International is the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider for the project. Both the jacket and topside are on schedule.

The Cassia C jacket is the latest of BPTT’s infrastructure to be fabricated at TOFCO. Six out of BPTT’s 15 offshore platforms were constructed at TOFCO. Including Cassia C, this represents about US$350 million of investment.

Fitzpatrick said, “That is something that we at BPTT are proud of and I believe that it is something everyone at TOFCO should be proud of as well. This demonstrates our commitment to local content and developing local capability. We value our partnership with McDermott and TOFCO and see it as one of the industry’s real success stories.”

The Cassia Compression project fits into BPTT’s Area Development plan which outlines the direction and pace of the company’s activities to develop its resources in the Columbus Basin. The plan includes a combination of exploration, development projects and activities focused on maximising production from existing fields.

Fitzpatrick said there was increasing competition to access funding for projects and therefore local fabrication must remain competitive.

“The key to continued development and success of the local fabrication industry is continued investment in developing skills and focusing on the productivity of the workforce. Trinidad has had a good track record and can capitalise on other opportunities by focusing on being globally competitive.”