Ramps Logistics CEO: Energy Conference builds relationships

RAMPS Logistics chief executive officer Shaun Rampersad is excited about the upcoming Energy Conference 2023.

In a conversation with Business Day, he described the conference – January 23-25, Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain – as a tremendous networking opportunity that results in broadening connections and expanding each participant's business.

“The conference is a huge part of being successful in building relationships, getting to know people, understanding who are the major players in the industry and I feel like that the TT Energy Conference does that very well,” he said.

“I think that the energy conference gives a chance for service companies to hear directly from the operators. They come to to the conference, they tell us about their plans for next year, where they plan to invest and we get an idea as to where the industry is heading. One of the things that every single service company will be paying attention to at the conference is what is the capital spend of each of the major operators, so we know where to focus our business as well.”

Rampersad said the conference will also give the service companies insight as to what the next few years may look like within the industry. He said Ramps Logistics as a service company offers its clients the resources needed to carry out their functions undisturbed.

Ramps Logistics first started as a customer brokerage business and has grown over the last few years to become an integrated logistics company for oil and gas freight services, shore base management, material management business, and provisional personnel logistics – getting visas or work permits for the workers. He explained that the company is responsible for providing the necessary resources to its clients for smooth operations.

Ramps Logistics will be an exhibitor at this year’s conference and Rampersad said that it’s important for the company since last year, it focused on building new digital systems to ensure the company and its customers were able to operate virtually without hiccups.

“It gives us a chance to display back to our customers over three days on the progress we made as an organisation, what digital systems we built out and to really show people how the company has progressed and it gives us a chance to try and convince participants of the conference that we can add value to their business.”

Rampersad said this conference would be the company’s second physical one post-pandemic restrictions and he expects to see a full conference since there’ll be around 700 participants.

“I really hope that the conference is a shot of energy especially for the smaller service companies in the country because those are the ones who really felt the brunt of the pandemic. Those are the ones that had to send people home and really restructured their business. It’s been really challenging for service companies, so I really hope that this conference is an opportunity for the entire service sector to shine and for us to get some real encouragement and good news from the upstream operators, the government and the Ministry of Energy.”

Once companies utilise the conference, he said they will be able to get people to reinvest so that they can build their companies stronger to expand the energy sector.

Ramps Logistics has been around since 1985 and is continuing to grow especially within the international market. The company got a local content certificate last November for its Guyana-based subsidiary after initial refusal by local authorities.

The company in particular is looking at TT since he sees many opportunities rising within the next few years. He mentioned the Loran-Manatee Drilling Programme stemming from Shell which he described as the “biggest gas drilling programme in the history of TT.”

The Loran-Manatee is a natural gas field discovered in 1983 found on the continental shelf of the Atlantic Ocean. Production began in 2013 and drillers gained natural gas and condensates. An agreement was made which resulted in Venezuela acquiring 73.75 per cent of the joint field while TT got the remaining 26.25 per cent.

TT’s initial plan was to develop the gas field with Venezuela, but in 2020, the Prime Minister announced that TT would develop it independently citing US sanctions against Venezuelan companies.

Rampersad said with great emphasis, “I don’t believe that our best days are behind us, I believe that our best days are ahead of us.”

He was referring to his experiences with people believing that the oil and gas sector in particular is stagnant within the energy industry.

“We see the new developments in Venezuela with Chevron and the fact the US government has removed some sanctions that allows Chevron to export oil from Venezuela. We hope that our government, the government of Venezuela and the government of the US can come to an agreement that will allow Venezuelan gas to come to TT for processing, so that gas could then go to places that really need it.”

Rampersad hopes that issues like these can be discussed and come to fruition with the help to the conference.

With green energy on the rise, Rampersad said a lot of the skills needed to process hydrogen into usable energy are the same used in the oil and gas sector.

“I’m hopeful that we will be able to transfer those skills from oil and gas to hydrogen and create a new industry of the future, a green renewable industry.”