South Riding Point crude oil terminal, which suffered extensive hurricane damage totaling millions of dollars, has signed off on an $8.5 million deal with a Houston-based company to repair the facility.
The South Riding Point operation, located 35 miles east of Freeport on the southern portion of Grand Bahama, is a transshipment terminal for crude oil and is used as a storage holding area for crude oil deliveries to North America, with 5.25 million barrels of storage capacity.
The facility serves as a “break-bulk” point for crude oil destined for the United States much in the same way as the container port serves as a break-bulk point for merchandise containers destined for the United States.
Situated close to the southeast coast of Florida, the Bahamas terminal offers economic advantages for companies that make use of it.
Minister of Financial Services and Investments Vincent Peet toured the facility during his recent visit to Grand Bahama and announced that a contract had been concluded for major repairs in the aftermath of Hurricane Wilma
“A major contract has been signed to repair the necessary infrastructure to ensure that the function of that terminal continues and the contract they now have for the transshipment of fuel would not be interrupted,” he said.
Offshore Piping Engineers, a company that reportedly specializes in marine work, is carrying out the repairs.
Jaime Vargas, vice president of operations for South Riding Point, told the Bahama Journal the contract will provide for the repair of the jetty, or Sea Island as it is more popularly called.
He said it was the single biggest contract awarded for hurricane repairs.
Mr. Vargas itemized the damage wrought during the past three major hurricanes.
“We were hit by three hurricanes in the last few years – Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma,” he said. “They totaled some $12 million in damage. We took the opportunity to carry out repairs [of some $4.5 million] while the contractors were here, so we have embarked on a repair programme of some $16 million,” he said.
“Breaking it down by item, our jetty suffered $5.5 million of hurricane damage. We are spending $3 million of our own money to repair it. We had a tank that suffered damage worth $4 million. We [undertook] $1.5 million of repairs on our account aside from the hurricane damage, and then we had $2 million in land damage to equipment and buildings.”
Mr. Vargas said the minister indicated that Bahamians should be employed during the repairs to the jetty.
“Mr. Peet was interested in seeing that a lot of the manpower that will be utilized in the erection, fabrication and repairs would be as high a Bahamian content as possible,” said Mr. Vargas.
Mr. Peet told the press he was impressed by the Bahamian employees at the facility.
“I was also pleased to see the number of Bahamians that are employed at a professional and managerial level at the facility,” he said. “I encourage the managers to ensure that continues.”
South Riding Point presently employs 50 permanent Bahamian workers.
By: Daphne McIntosh, The Bahama Journal
