La Brea gets concrete coating plant

WHEN HE visited the La Brea Industrial Estate recently, Prime Minister Patrick Manning saw how his Government’s stated commitment to local content is creating new jobs in the district. The new concrete coating operations, which began only in February of this year, is an example of how contracts can be awarded to maximise local content in the energy sector. In the past, most of the offshore pipes imported into Trinidad were supplied already coated with concrete. The National Gas Company (NGC) opted for a different approach in its Beachfield Upstream Development (BUD) project. It is building a 66-kilometre pipeline from bpTT’s Cassia B Platform off Trinidad’s East Coast coming ashore at Rustville in Guayaguayare and then continuing for another 2.5 kilometres onshore to Abyssinia.

The marine line must be concrete coated to lie stable on the seabed and provide protection from third party damage. Therefore, concrete coating is a requirement for laying of offshore pipelines and this operation in Trinidad by itself is a multi-million dollar contract. The Canadian firm of Bredero Shaw, which won the contract, has set up its Trinidad operations, ShawCor Pipe Protection LLC (Trinidad Branch), on 20 acres of land at the La Brea Industrial Estate. ShawCor is employing 100 local people and will be purchasing 8,000 metric tonnes of cement from Trinidad Cement Ltd for the job.

The NGC contract has triggered several related activities.  A local contractor was used to prepare the site, others are being used to supply trucks and cranes to move the pipe, and ShawCor’s presence in Trinidad has already led to it being awarded another concrete coating contract, this time from bhp Billiton. The Estate’s Brighton Harbour is also seeing increased activity as it will be handling not only the importation of 30,000 metric tonnes of pipeline for the BUD project but also 40,000 metric tonnes of iron ore which will be mixed with the cement to coat the pipes. According to ShawCor project manager Noel Corcoran, the ten expatriates on the job all have local understudies and, depending on the volume of work the company is able to find in Trinidad, he anticipates that they will eventually be replaced by these understudies. (See Page 12)