CEO of Atlantic Nigel Darlow said the company is suffering badly as a result of daily gas supply shortages and the Point Fortin liquefaction facility is now at "record low levels of utilisation" and is failing to deliver on its LNG commitments,
"It is hurting Atlantic and its hurting the global reputation of Trinidad as a reliable producer of LNG. We have built a global reputation as a safe and reliable producer of LNG and we must continue to protect the reputation of Atlantic and Trinidad's LNG on the world stage," he told guests at the recent Atlantic CEO's Sustainability Awards at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre.
Atlantic, one of the world's largest producers of LNG, is among energy and petrochemical plants across the country affected by natural gas curtailments. The ongoing tight supply and demand situation, which has been affecting the gas industry since 2010, stems from extensive work to upgrade infrastructure as well as frequent disruptions.
Darlow said even with these supply challenges, Atlantic is delivering its highest ever levels of performance in its 17 year operating history in terms of safety, asset integrity and reliability.
"Atlantic's performance is something we are very proud of and we hope that the country is proud of too," he said. "Atlantic has probably the best safety record of any LNG facility anywhere in the world–having now surpassed 32 million man hours without a significant injury equivalent to over 8 and a half years of safe operations while at the same time Atlantic continues to deliver its best ever plant performance–measured in terms of reliability.
"So all these factors together with the fact that we have hugely talented people with deep LNG experience means that we need not worry about the ability of Atlantic to continue to be successful globally."
The overall winner of this year's Atlantic CEO's Sustainability Awards was The Train 4 Improvement and Train 4 Dehydrator Inlet Separator Project.
The project significantly enhanced the performance of Train 4 as well as the overall plant and involved the largest lift in Atlantic's operating history to hoist and install two LNG process vessels with a combined weight of 410 tons.
The project was also the winner in the Production Category competing against the winning projects from the Health, Safety, Security, Environment (HSSE) and Asset Integrity, Cost Management and Value Creation, People and Corporate Responsibility categories.
The CEO's Awards panel of judges, led by Nirad Tewarie, President of AmCham Trinidad and Tobago singled out four projects for honourable mention for their current and potential contribution to community and/or national development.
The Atlantic LEND (Loan for Enterprise and Network Development) Micro-Financing Agency was established in 2014 to extend credit to budding and micro entrepreneurs in the south western peninsula of Trinidad, helping to build economic diversification in the region.
In 2015, the LEND Agency had disbursed 55 loans, facilitating job creation in such sectors as retail, agriculture, fishing and manufacturing.
The other projects were the Atlantic/ECOSOL partnership, which mobilized a Point Fortin service provider company and facilitated the installation of a sustainable hazardous waste disposal system for Atlantic; the Atlantic Marine Trainee Programme, which trains young marine professionals for the local, regional and global marine industry; and the Non Destructive Testers Limited (NDTL) Competency Assurance and Certification Programme, a competence assessment initiative developed by service provider company NDTL to enhance the safety performance of its employees.