Direct employment for La Brea and environs next year
Up to 400 jobs will be created in La Brea in less than two years.
That’s according to Energy Minister Kevin Ramnarine who toured the Bryden Port and Labidco Dock in La Brea on Wednesday in a bid to understand the productivity levels and challenges.
The Minister said one of the reasons he was there was because BP and BG were planning major turnarounds of two significant platforms in the next two weeks.
He explained that the Government has identified a number of growth poles for this country, one of which is the South western peninsula.
“What is emerging here with our power plant, with the ports across the road, with Lake Asphalt and with the coming Mitsubishi investment that will be located next door to this power plant where the Alutrint smelter would have been located is an emerging economic area. A new industrial centre for Trinidad and Tobago.”
While at the Labidco Dock, Minister Ramnarine sought to explain why it is an essential energy asset.
“Most of our sector is located offshore and it has to have an element of marine support and this is essentially a logistic support base for the energy sector.”
He also boasted that the Labidco Dock will soon become a fabrication yard and will generate hundreds of jobs for the residents of La Brea.
“Once the Juniper project, which is BP’s next major gas development project, once that is sanctioned by BP, we expect that the top side, which is what you see above the water, and the jacket, which is what you don’t see below the water, will be fabricated in this fabrication yard next year. Now that means somewhere in the region 300 to 400 jobs. Direct employment in La Brea and of course there is the spin-off effect in La Brea and surrounding villages.”
The Minister said Trinidad & Tobago has 104 years of experience in the oil and gas industry so there is much to offer other countries in terms of practical knowledge.
He is confident that T&T will soon become a crucial logistics hub within the Caribbean region.