Christie sings Juniper’s praises

Christie sang Juniper’s praise while addressing the completion of the fabrication of the topside of the Juniper offshore platform at the Trinidad Offshore Fabricators (TOFCO) Yard, Labidco Industrial Estate, La Brea on Sunday. The platform is bpTT’s 14th locally fabricated offshore installation.

He said the entire Juniper project which would include the drilling programme and sub sea infrastructure, would cost approximately US$2 billion.

“The biggest spend on the project was on wells which are off shore and includes drilling and sub sea infrastructure,” Christie said as he described the project as having real significance for Trinidad and Tobago. He noted that at its peak, over 700 people worked on the platform with approximately 55 percent hailing from the La Brea community.

He noted that while there were setbacks on the project, the companies involved were able to recover and deliver a project well within earmarked timeline. The Juniper offshore project, located in the East Mayaro Block (Block EM) off Trinidad and Tobago’s south-east coast, comprises the development of the Corallita and Lantana gas fields owned by bpTT.

The two fields are located 50 miles (80.4km) off the south-east coast of Trinidad and Tobago, in water depth between 330 ft and 360 ft.

The project was sanctioned in August 2014 and the fabrication of the gas gathering platform began in the same year. He said for the past 26 months, TOFCO, Technip and BP worked together with support from the Ministry of Energy to “make history” as he proudly pointed to the Juniper platform saying it is 5,100 tons of, “collaboration, knowledge transfer and commitment.” “Along with collaboration and knowledge transfer, the story of the Juniper topside is also a story of commitment.

The Juniper topside is the sixth major facility fabricated at TOFCO for bpTT. Starting with Cannonball in 2005, and following with Mango, Cashima, Savonette, Serrette and now Juniper, we are immensely proud for having contributed to the development of a local fabrication industry here in La Brea,” he added.

Asked about the Angelin natural gas field project, Christie said negotiations are still ongoing and the company (bpTT) has to remain competitive if other projects were to be realised in Trinidad and Tobago. “If we reach an agreement, the project will be a go, that was the prerequisite and I was delighted to hear the affirmation from the Energy Minister but he said something else that is important.

He said we can have a project but we also have to stay competitive, the reason I can’t give you any iron clad commitment around where work will be done is because of course there are competitive negotiations which have to be concluded and if they are competitive then we will obviously build where things are competitive,” Christie said.