Speaking at the launch event of Atlantic’s Annual Process Safety Week, the Minister of Energy and Energy Industries Nicole Olivierre announced that Atlantic had scored the highest in the recent national facilities audit of Trinidad and Tobago’s energy infrastructure. The audit was conducted by DNV, an international firm of asset integrity specialists. Thirty (30) local energy companies were audited.
“In every single category of every component, Atlantic scored in the top quartile, except one, so there is still some room for improvement. But overall Atlantic is leading the way in asset integrity and for that I congratulate you”, Minister Olivierre said.
Nigel Darlow, CEO, Atlantic said that the LNG producer’s performance in the national energy facilities audit was reflective of the high standard its employees and service providers had set themselves in Process Safety, which he defined as “keeping the hydrocarbons and chemicals in the pipes”. He explained that Atlantic was continuing to deliver its highest levels of performance in its 17 years of operations. Darlow noted that Atlantic had surpassed over 32.5 million man hours without a Lost Time Incident, the equivalent of nearly 9 years of safe operations.
Speaking to the situation of low gas supply, Minister Olivierre gave an update on the Memorandum of Understanding executed on May 23 between the Governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, which could facilitate Trinidad and Tobago purchasing a portion of the 2.6 Tcf of gas reserves in the Dragon gas field offshore north-east Venezuela. “This project is moving ahead at a quite rapid pace, and both governments are committed to making this supply available to us as soon as it can be facilitated,” Minister Olivierre said. She also explained that the two countries were close to finalizing the unitization and unit operators agreement for the Loran-Manatee cross-border reserves.
“These developments have the potential to re-energize our natural gas sector,” the Minister of Energy said. “The Government of Venezuela has indicated their interest in the gas being processed at Atlantic’s facility, and this can possibly provide the supply that we need to keep this world-class facility in operation and maintaining the reputation of Trinidad and Tobago as a safe and reliable supplier of LNG to the world.”
Established in 2012, Atlantic’s Process Safety Week features lectures, presentations, panel discussions, competitions and booth displays, all aimed at deepening the knowledge of employees and service providers about Process Safety at Atlantic and the wider industry. This year’s theme was “Adding Value through the Effective Management of Process Safety”. Minister Olivierre praised the event and requested Atlantic to invite even more companies to be exposed to its presentations of shared learnings which could be embedded into their operations.