The desire, both within the government of Trinidad and Tobago and the industry, is to see as much work performed locally as possible. The WesternGeco data processing centre will focus on hiring and training local employees, with the first Trinidadian geophysicists already having undergone geophysical training in the U.S. and Norway.

"Great credit must be given to BP of Trinidad and Tobago (BPTT), who through their high valuation of local content, fostered a favorable environment for WesternGeco to bring in the technology and train local staff," said Colin Hulme, WesternGeco general manager of seismic data processing.

Performing the work locally enables BPTT staff to make important processing decisions in country, and the close interaction between interpreters and processors will result in a high-value product and efficient turnaround.

"The opening of the Port of Spain centre is consistent with our strategy of providing our clients with the proven benefits of local expertise, while at the same time having access to leading-edge technology and the global resources of WesternGeco," added Hulme.

WesternGeco will be using leading-edge proprietary seismic software solutions running on the latest parallel workstations and PC cluster machines. The centre is co-located with Schlumberger, who have a long and distinguished heritage of working in Trinidad and Tobago, bringing many synergies to the local oil and gas industry.