bptt ramps gas production with Cassia B, boosts local gas reserves

Standing on the dock staring up at bpTT’s Cassia B, which is the size of a large hotel, one can become dizzy and disoriented. After, a few minutes however, the reality of what you are looking at can hit you like a bulldozer. This massive structure will soon be bobbing along the ocean, 40 miles offshore, producing 2 billion cubic feet of gas per day (bcfgpd) as the largest central processing unit in the world. “The deck will be situated 40 miles east of Trinidad,“ said Kamal Jaggernauth, operations manager for the Cassia B. It is 90 feet by 180 feet and weighs over 6,300 tonnes. The barge arrived in Trinidad on August 25 and the platform will be in place on the same date, said Jaggernauth, who was one of the tour guides for the facility recently, when guests, including the media were invited to get a look at the hub.

CEO of bpTT Robert Riley said the platform will allow the company to compress gas offshore, increasing its ability to boost local gas reserves. As an unmanned facility, it provides a level of safety that does not exist on other platforms, said Riley. bptt currently produces about 1.8 bcfgpd which is bought by ALNG and NGC. ALNG takes about 500 mcfgpd, while NGC takes about 600 mcfgpd, according to Jaggernauth. Cassia B is separated into a jacket walkway, a sump deck, utility deck, production deck and a compression deck, as you go up. It will be connected to Cassia A via the Atlantic Bridge Crossing. Cassia A holds the Helideck, main deck and a production deck. As part of the Kapok project, Cassia A has undergone major upgrades. They include: mothballing of process equipment, removal of electrical generators, re-routing of lines, a new control room, fire walls, and additional quarters for the workers of both platforms. As an environmental precaution, the existing flare system has been removed. This upgrade is about 90 percent completed.

The Cassia B platform has three main lines, the Bombax 48-inch pipeline, the Kapok 20-inch pipeline and the futuristic 36-inch NGC pipeline. The Bombax is the largest pipeline in Trinidad, said Jaggernauth. But the hub was not built for just three lines. As the largest (central processing unit) CPU, it has built-in foot prints for even more platforms to connect. According to Jaggernauth, one of these will be the new Cannonball project. The footprints are the base for the risers which will run from the main deck to the compressor deck. “There are also umbilical headers and this is a first for Trinidad because it allows us the opportunity to transport electricity through umbilical cables to remote locations like Kapok and Cannonball,” said Jaggernauth.

As a result Cassia B can generate power and produce water to send sub-sea to all remote platforms allowing it to fully support all the smaller platforms. “If you have one turbine that could make a lot of power and distribute it to more consumers than have isolated generators for each facility,” said Jaggernauth. The platform will have a minimum of ten people at any given time. The idea is to position the hub to operate independently without much manpower. Most of the workers will be on Cassia A which will contain the control facilities to operate Cassia B, added Jaggernauth. The question many are asking is whether the production capacity of 2.0 bcfgpd can be met by the reserves. According to bpTT, Kapok has proven reserves of 2.0 trillion cubic feet of gas per day and an additional one trillion in potential and compression reserves. “There is gas out there,” said Jaggernauth, All we need are the markets for them.”