Americas News
Trinidad and Tobago Moves to Expand Bunkering
Trinidad and Tobago is taking steps to expand its maritime services sector, including through the completion of a new ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) refinery unit, Wilfred de Gannes, chairman and CEO of Shipbuilding & Repair Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (SRDC) writes at industry news site MarineLink.
SRDC recommends that government officials encourage the development of a competitive bunkering supply.
"This will create a demand curve for these and other related services, thereby encouraging the rapid growth of our domestic maritime sector, which is highly labor intensive," de Gannes writes.
"Trinidad and Tobago can quickly become an international magnet for competitive maritime services, in much the same way as both the Republic of Singapore and the Republic of Panama have achieved, by using their strategic geographic and competitive advantage to benefit their economies."
Samsung Engineering is building the ULSD unit as part of the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd. (Petrotrin)'s Clean Fuels Program, which aims to improve profitability of its Pointe-a-Pierre Gulf of Paria refinery.
Germany's Oldendorff Carriers GmbH & Co. KG, which established an iron ore transshipment facility in Trinidad and Tobago in 2012, is one of Petrotrin's largest customers, and de Gannes suggests other big ship owners may follow.
The nation is in the middle of shipping lanes that bring 31,000 voyages per year within 25 nautical miles.
In addition, about 14,000 oceangoing vessels pass through the nearby Panama Canal each year, and the number is expected to double after the completion of the canal expansion project in 2015.
Petrotrin has said that the new ULSD plant will allow it to supply fuel that complies with new emission standards, while shifting from heavier bottom-of-the-barrel fuel oil to more lucrative refined products.
