Offshore platform brings boost to Trinidad

A STONE’S throw from the spot where British explorer Sir Walter Raleigh happened upon a vast lake of pitch in 1595, workers in a fenced yard are building the first offshore drilling platform designed and constructed in a Caribbean country to extract natural gas. Raleigh used the pitch to cork leaks in his ships; today liquid natural gas is leading an economic boom in Trinidad and Tobago. The drilling platform being built for bp Trinidad and Tobago LLC — the Trinidad branch of London-based BP Amoco PLC — is scheduled to be completed in March in the islands off Venezuela and be fully operational in January 2006, officials say.

Several other platforms are already extracting natural gas off the former British colony. But the one under construction in the southern town of La Brea is the first to be built in the country, instead of along the US Gulf coast. When the 900 tonne, four-level platform is complete, it will be lifted with cranes and installed 30 miles (48 kilometres) off Trinidad’s southeast coast. While it will extract some crude oil, its main aim is natural gas for plants operated by Atlantic LNG in the southern town of Point Fortin, some 45 miles (70 kilometres) south of the capital, Port-of-Spain. In recent years, Trinidad has leapfrogged ahead in the industry to become the leading supplier of liquid natural gas to the United States, supplying 75 percent of its liquid natural gas imports last year.

Liquid natural gas made up only three percent of total natural gas used in the United States in 2003, but is expected to grow to 15 percent by 2025. With proven natural gas reserves of 30 trillion cubic feet (850 billion cubic metres), Trinidad reported 12.8 percent economic growth in the fiscal year that ended this month, much of it due to liquid natural gas. The nation of 1.3 million people relies on oil and gas for more than a quarter of its gross domestic product. Officials say about 120 people are employed in the latest project, working in a yard where the hulking metal platform lies on its side, more than half finished.

The Cannonball Platform is projected to extract and process 700 million cubic feet (19.8 million cubic metres) of natural gas per day. “Cannonball is not just about building a platform, it’s about giving this country the potential to provide the world with goods and first-class services,” said Robert Riley, president of bpTT, on a recent tour of the construction site. Riley, who is Trinidadian, said the total cost of building the platform and related projects is TT$834 million (US$139 million) — TT$60 million (US$10 million) more than it would have cost to build in the United States. But he said that in the long term they hoped to see “over-time efficiency gains” as they carry out more projects in the country. Trinidad’s government is negotiating deals with bpTT and several other companies to construct two more liquid natural plants. Last year it also signed a memorandum of understanding with Venezuela to process the neighbouring country’s large natural gas reserves.