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Profiles
THE PARAMOUNT TRANSPORT AND TRADING COMPANY LTD
POINT LISAS NITROGEN LTD
POWER GENERATION COMPANY OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO LTD
The Paramount Transport and Trading Company Ltd (PTT) is a family-run business with its headquarters in Marabella, a suburb of San Fernando, where the company was founded 65 years ago.
Point Lisas Nitrogen Ltd (PLNL) operates a 650,000 tonnes per year ammonia plant, with facilities to the port for direct loading of product to vessels.
Power Generation Company of Trinidad and Tobago Ltd (PowerGen) is a subsidiary of the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC).
Nitrogen fertiliser performs a vital role in growing crops to feed an increasing global population.
The company generates electrical power for the national grid and operates power stations with a total output of over 1,344 MW.
Its aim is to be the region’s leading source for all heavy equipment and related services and to offer safe, reliable and innovative solutions to client’s problems. It also seeks to provide a good working environment for its 500 employees. PTT has also broadened its scope to the international arena and is now active in foreign markets such as Ghana, Venezuela, Colombia and the Panama Canal. In Trinidad and Tobago the company is recognised by its fleet of 80 trucks and 1,000 trailers that mostly haul containers around the islands. PTT also has a fleet of ‘Magnificent Tools for Monumental Tasks’ that includes the region’s largest cranes, advanced computer control systems and selfpropelled modular transporters, skidding and strand jack systems and computerised ballasting systems for barges. Its huge range of state-of-the-art equipment is maintained on a strict schedule and to highest safety standards in accordance with its Quality Management System. PTT is reinforcing its QMS procedures to adhere to ISO 9001: 2008 standards for which all four companies in the group are expected to qualify by end-2010. www.paramounttransport.com
PLNL is one of the lowest-cost ammonia manufacturers in the western hemisphere. Owned on an equal basis by US-based Terra Industries Inc and Koch Mineral Services, LLC, it produces ammonia from natural gas supplied under contract with the National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago. The plant began in 1998 as Farmland MissChem Ltd, a joint venture between Farmland Industries and Mississippi Chemicals, until bought by Terra/Koch in 2004. It uses the Kellogg Advanced Ammonia Process (KAAP). The KAAP technology features a proprietary catalyst that uses ruthenium on a graphite carbon base. This catalyst is up to 20 times more active than a traditional iron-magnetite catalyst and therefore provides higher ammonia conversions with reduced catalyst volumes. This process reduces capital cost, improves operating efficiency and involves lower maintenance requirement. When opened, PLNL was one of the largest single train ammonia plants in the world.
PowerGen was established in December 1994. It is a joint venture company, created out of the partial divestment of T&TEC, and was formed to buy the generation assets of T&TEC. The company owns and operates the country’s three main power plants at Port of Spain, Point Lisas and Penal. The largest is the Point Lisas plant, with a capacity of 838 MW, which opened in 1977 to supply the emerging industries at the industrial estate. It is supplemented by a 225 MW plant, operated by Trinity Power Ltd, which entered service in September 1999. T&TEC has retained the majority shareholding in PowerGen. The other shareholders are Amoco Trinidad Power Resources Corporation and MaruEnergy Trinidad, LLC. PowerGen’s vision is to be the leading supplier of quality energy, committed to the needs of its customers and sensitive to the environment, and to deliver this in a safe and environmentally responsible manner, creating value for its customers, employees and shareholders.