Remember Your Roots by David Campbell

TOFCO
www.tofcott.com
001 868 651 0006
Written by Don Campbell
REMEMBERING
YOUR ROOTS
Endeavour Magazine • March 2013 • 7
TOFCO
Established specifically to serve the offshore industry off the
coast of the island nation of Trinidad, TOFCO (Trinidad Offshore
Fabricators Unlimited) is looking to expand internationally. Now
in its ninth year of business, they are prospecting to take on new
projects in South American and African nations including Brazil,
Guyana, Venezuela, Ghana and Nigeria. We spoke to Operations
Manager Javed Mohammed about it.
Having gained enough experience and knowledge to
move onto the next phase TOFCO have hosted a number of
government officials from the nations mentioned above to
have a look at the business model utilized because they want
to find a way to adopt it. If imitation is indeed the highest
form of flattery then this is good news for this nine-year-old
industry leader.
“The current level of activity in construction industry can
be described as a bit buoyant,” Javed reveals, “As it relates
to the Global downturn in the sector. Again, while the
competition may be a bit aggressive for the limited available
work, TOFCO still maintains its competitive edge due to its
experience, safety record and high quality products.”
Focussed on fabrication and construction projects on
offshore platforms and other facilities serving the oil and
gas industries TOFCO has taken aim and is heading towards
a target of being the best in the region with a worldwide
reputation for the highest safety standards and quality of
work.
Founded on the 17th April 2004, over the last nine
years TOFCO have successfully completed major oil and
gas fabrication projects for various operators in Trinidad
and Tobago as a joint venture of Chet Morrison Contractors
LLC., a Houma, LA based and Weldfab Ltd. of Trinidad. The
company stems from BP’s drive to do more projects locally.
At the time local firms lacked the expertise to perform the
sort of projects they wanted and so invited international
contractors with the skills in offshore platform work to team
up and share their knowledge.
Importantly, while TOFCO maintains ownership ties to its
parent companies it functions as an independent company
and performs its own projects and procurement having
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Endeavour Magazine • March 2013 •
TOFCO
developed solid, reliable relationships with suppliers. As a
company, still new in comparison to their competitors, the
suppliers feeding into the projects form the foundation on
which TOFCO operates and develops,
Since 2004, TOFCO has completed five major offshore
platform jacket and deck fabrication projects for BP Trinidad
and Tobago (Cannonball, Mango, Cashima, Savonette and
Serrette) one for BG Trinidad and Tobago (Poinsettia DeckThe largest built to date in Trinidad) and two for EOG
Resources Inc (Oilbird Deck and Jacket, Toucan Deck).
Benefiting greatly from the company’s two Facilities
totalling 37-acre, TOFCO has its main Yard 1 a 21-acre
waterfront facility and Yard 2 with another 16-acre in La
Brea, Trinidad, with the ability to easily ship completed decks
and other pieces for customers to assemble offshore. The
facility includes a dock with a 30-foot water depth; a 600-foot
bulkhead, 2000 p.s.f. ground capacity and is complimented
by its fleet of six crawler heavy lift cranes, five mobile groove
cranes and other pieces of equipment. This is subsidized
with a twenty four hour delivery schedule.
TOFCO’s recent work includes a number of smaller
maintenance and fabrication projects in support of oil and
gas customers including procurement, fabricating, blasting,
painting, storage, equipment rentals and consulting work to
clients.
Engaged in a programme of diversification, TOFCO
originally focussed totally on the offshore business, but over
the years have branched out into working on refineries and
petrochemical plants. An applicable agility allows them to
fabricate and process whatever is applicable to their model
which has opened up a number of industries.
An interesting aspect of TOFCO comes from its initiative
and approach to treating and training employees. Typical
of the region it nurtures its community ties encouraging an
approach of “Being your brother’s Keeper,”
The company employs a youthful but skilled workforce of
welders, fabricators, riggers and others whom it cross-trains
across several disciplines. This youthful presence was a result
of their start up story, as in 2004 when they first started
they were the “new arrivals” to the area and so the existing
workforce was hesitant to join them. In response they took
on young employees, under the age of 25 and groomed them
to work with them. This sort of investment has resulted in a
strong loyalty from their staff.
Outside of its fabrication facility, TOFCO’s employees
Assist residents of La Brea with community development
programs to organizations but not limited to schools, a local
orphanage and home for the elderly.
This theme of corporate altruism is common in this region
where the businesses have grown up in the community and
have never lost their roots, it is a refreshing business model
that is proving to be highly efficient in growing not only the
businesses through the influx of loyal employees and staff
but also from the levels of education and training available
to these employees prior to joining the workforce.
“2013 will be bringing some opportunities for TOFCO and
all its main vendors and contractors. We are anticipating work
on deck and jacket fabrication as well as some modularized
work. There will be some additional facility upgrades to be
undertaken looking at completion 4th quarter 2013.” Javed
concludes.
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