Dr Thackwray Driver, left, chief executive officer, South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce (STCIC), with Colin Augustus, managing director, Special Consultants, Oilfield Rental Equipment Ltd. PHOTO: RISHI RAGOONATH

The South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce (STCIC) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with four small energy services companies to assist it in improving its Safe to Work (STOW) programme. The signing marks the start of the pilot, the third and final phase of the STOW project. Phase I involved the STCIC working with a consultant and energy industry stakeholders to create the STOW minimum health, safety and environment (HSE) requirements. Phase II involved the training and authorisation of HSE professionals to work as independent assessors to guide energy service contractors towards STOW certification.

As beneficiaries under the STCIC’s STOW programme, the four companies, Kennicon Engineering Ltd, Hull Support Services Ltd, Mitchell’s Professional Diving Services and Special Consultants, Oilfield Rental Equipment Ltd (SCORE), will receive a grant from the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Multilateral Investment Fund towards the certification of the HSE requirements. The signing took place at the Chamber’s Cross Crossing office, San Fernando. Among those present were Dr Thackwray Driver, chief executive officer, STCIC; Nazamudin Mohamed, managing director, Kennicon; Jim Hurst, HSE director, Hull; Rhonda Pantin-Mitchell, of Mitchell’s Professional Diving Services; and Colin Augustus, managing director, SCORE.

Advantages of certification
Driver said the MoU was an important step in the process as it would lead to these four companies taking the lead in getting certified, which would place them in a position of advantage to get work with major companies in the energy sector. Driver said the process to be certified will take about two to three months, depending on how fast the companies are willing to work. He said they are also working with big companies to ensure that the STOW requirements become mandatory.

Augustus, of SCORE, said STOW levels the playing field for companies such as his to compete with larger service companies, once their management systems are implemented. The STCIC said the IDB grant will be used to offset the commercial fees of the senior independent assessors (SIA). The grant will cover 50 per cent of the SIAs’ fees up to a total of $30,000 to implement the STOW requirements, and $12,000 for the assessment. Each beneficiary will be expected to provide counterpart funds towards certification, including funds to implement the assessor’s recommendations.