00:00Before Energy Minister Stuart Young delivered a speech during his visit to the Drilling
00:17Academy at the National Energy Skills Centre or NESC Technical Institute in St. Madeleine,
00:23he listened to the speeches delivered by its executive leadership.
00:27A campus manager of the NESC said the centre's pursuit of quality is about the education
00:34it provides.
00:35So we are ISO 21001 certified, previously we were ISO 9001 which is basically quality
00:42management systems, but we took the bold step to go into 21001 because it was specifically
00:47against our educational management system.
00:51So we were one of the very first people, institutions in the country, to try to achieve this.
00:56He spoke about the importance of certification and use abroad to work on drilling rigs such
01:00as oil rigs, as he made reference to the Point Desas Industrial Estate, where plants that
01:05produce downstream natural gas products such as ammonia and methanol are located.
01:11What plea is to the Point Desas Industrial Estate, rig pass is a minimum C3 credential
01:17that is required to work on different rigs in different parts of the world.
01:19Before you work on any rig, you have to go and get your rig pass.
01:23The first group of students here would have brought in somebody to do a rig pass accreditation
01:28with them, certification with them.
01:29But as we progressed, we would have actually applied for rig pass so we could actually
01:34conduct rig pass and we have certified instructors here.
01:38While drilling for oil and natural gas can be a financially lucrative business, it is
01:43one that is not without potential danger.
01:46So the plan is through the School of Continuing Education that we want to push that into energy
01:52in Trinidad, especially in the drilling industry, because we want to make sure that safety is
01:56the number one priority.
01:57And we want to make sure that everybody has the basic minimum requirements for safety
02:03in the industry.
02:04And while plea is important and plea is very relevant in certain instances, we believe
02:08that the rig pass is more applicable to the drilling industry.
02:12The president of the NESC supported a statement about the rig pass that was made by the campus
02:18manager.
02:19I think we need to administer, and I don't know if this is something in the ministry
02:22itself could happen, you know, Said spoke about this, the rig pass.
02:27We need to have some sort of standard minimum qualifications, I'm thinking, that anybody
02:33stepping foot on a rig should be.
02:36Just like he mentioned the plea passport to Point Lisa's area.
02:41You know, that might be something that we could massage or because, I mean, all insurance
02:46companies now, everything is now about certification.
02:51The energy minister acknowledged the concern.
02:53Because I've been pushing the local industry to do more drilling.
02:59And they now, for a while, have graduates like yourself with the certification.
03:04And I agree with the president.
03:06We have to press for the safety standards.
03:09It was interesting, the first lady that came up here to give the safety briefing started
03:13off with safety as a priority.
03:15The first video safety in the oil and gas industry, safety is literally the priority.
03:22And certification is an important role to play in that.
03:25I'm Jule Brown for tonight's Inside Business.
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