Trinidad and Tobago
Guardian
4 Trinity workers suer injuries in fire on platform
By GEISHA KOWLESSAR
Operators on the Trinity Exploration’s Trintes Bravo
platform sustained minor burns when a fire broke out on
Monday, Trinity said in a notice posted on its website.
It said the four employees suffered from smoke
inhalation and were treated for minor injuries.
Trinity said the employees are being monitored.
Trinity is an independent oil production company focused
solely on T&T.
According to the notice, “A generator-related fire
occurred on Trinity’s Bravo Platform in the Trintes Field,
offshore east coast Trinidad.”
Production from the Bravo platform was halted, the fire
was quickly extinguished and the platform was
subsequently evacuated, it said.
As a precautionary measure, production from the other
Trintes platforms, Delta and Alpha, was also shut down.
No hydrocarbons were released into the environment as a
result of this incident, the company said.
The next day, a multi-disciplinary team was mobilised on
the Bravo platform to assess the cause and extent of
damage from the incident and the remediation required
to return to service.
Trinity said the damage was limited to a generator and
the platform structure, electricals and equipment are in
good order. The company estimates replacement of the
generator and associated repairs on the Bravo platform
will be completed within three to four days and
production will be restarted in a phased manner once
approval is received from the Ministry of Energy and
Energy Industries.
In response to the fire, Energy Minister Stuart Young
yesterday said: “In keeping with standard protocols and
procedure the management of Trinity Exploration and
Production has been in touch with the Ministry of Energy
and reported this incident.
“I am informed that four workers suffered minor injuries
as a result of a small fire on the platform that they put
out. Trinity informed that no hydrocarbon emissions
resulted which is good. The company is carrying out the
safety checks and processes to restart production from
the platform and in doing so has to satisfy the ministry’s
personnel that it is safe to resume operations.”
Trinity said its Alpha and Delta crews did precautionary
checks before restarting oil production on Tuesday, with
all previously producing wells coming back online
overnight.
“As is normally the case with any shutdown and restart,
well flow rates will be optimised over the coming days to
attain pre-shut-in production levels,” the company said.