The beginning…

Control Technologies Limited (CTL) was founded in June 1998 with the purpose of representing Elsag Bailey’s line of instrumentation products. Back then, CTL was located on Edward Street, Port-of-Spain and consisted of only two employees

1. Mr. Kenny Lue Chee Lip – Managing Director
2. And Ms. Evon Warrell – existing Administrative Staff.

Eventually, within the same year, the company moved location to South Trinidad where its head office is still currently located; as well as Bailey was acquired through a merger acquisition by ABB, thus the Read More…

As we grew…

1. The need for a sales representative emerged, specifically to represent ABB’s line of instrumentation. Hence, Mr. Kailash Maharaj was hired
2. CTL’s first installation and first set of radio links was done in the early 2000s, via a SCADA project done for WASA, for their Caroni Arena and Navet Water Treatment Plant. The dollar value for this SCADA project was quite significant and commenced our foray into controls and communication instrumentation.

This development kickstarted our expertise as system integrators leading to the acquisition of several projects for other water treatment plants. Thus, CTL could have now boasted that we were expert system integrators; and that we brought companies like WASA and NGC into a new era of control systems.

Our first major projects…

CTL’s first major project was the installation of a new Distributed Control System (DCS) and Shutdown (SD) System at Yara who desired to change out their old pneumatic instrumentation system to a new DCS. This project was mainly handled by Bailey, out of Norway, who subcontracted CTL for local support.

This plant has been shut down now, however it operated for quite some time, expanding CTL’s portfolio to now include the offering of engineering services and installation.

During this time, we won another project for Trinmar (now Paria). This project entailed another DCS and SD system on a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) barge. Called the “Adventurer 3,” this oil production facility required a vast amount of instrumentation work; and aided in the full introduction of CTL’s capabilities into the Trinidadian local Oil and Gas Industry.

Water For All…

Newly dubbed “system integrators,” we acquired another major WASA project – “Water For All,” in 2000. This SCADA initiative resulted in an increase in CTL’s on-hand staff, specifically engineers, to better ensure the success of the project.

“Water For All” was valued at a whopping $6m with a 360 turnkey system requiring: instrumentation/equipment, system engineering, plant assembly, physical installation and testing; and connection. It had approximately 12 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), a large quantity of fiber optic cables, design wiring, review links and HMI systems.

This was a very complex project for its time and CTL gained another opportunity to boast – that we have acquired experience under our belts. it was a milestone project that further expanded our capabilities and workforce. However, point to note, even though we now had the engineering capability, the company still needed to outsource physical labor i.e., construction.

CTL’s big break into construction…

“Water For All” created an opportunity for CTL to add construction as a capability. A couple of persons were hired internally; and within a short space of time, CTL’s first sole construction and installation project was acquired from Proman. We were hired to complete instrumentation work on a petrochemical plant in their AUM (Ammonia, Ammonium Urea Nitrate, Melamine) complex.

This greenfield project had a minimum of 100 workers on site and covered around $20m in work. It lasted an estimated 2 years.

As can imagine, its impact was quite significant to CTL; especially since it was one of our biggest projects till dat.

Cross Island Pipeline Project (CIPP)

Bechtel’s Cross Island Pipeline Project can safely be defined as one of CTL’s biggest and most complex projects to date. It had a wide variety of instrumentation, controls and telecommunication, various types of radio links, SD systems, pipelines and a heading control system.

For this project, we were subcontracted by ABB Houston, who was contracted by Bechtel. A grand number of telecom towers were installed along the southern part of Trinidad with a 56” gas pipeline running from the East Coast to the Atlantic.

At this point, we were now designing and operating to international standards, cementing our capabilities in telecommunications and instrumentation. CIPP propelled CTL’s internal diversification: our departments expanded, their individual capabilities expanded; and they were well on their way to becoming more self-operable. This project, really helped set up apart from our competition.

Developing Electronic Security as a Capability…

Out of the construction department, Electronic Security Solutions was developed, based on initial requests by clients to install CCTV on their sites. NGC was our very first client, giving us a big break into Electronic Security Solutions (ESS). They contracted us to install CCTV in their southeast facilities; with almost 30 different sites and over 200 cameras.

Their upgrades also included Acs, turnstiles, barrier gates, fence lines; and till this date we continue to provide support to these systems
ESS has since then been grown into a full-blown business; with the service department as an end product

COVID 2020…

As seen thus far, CTL has a history of growing project by project; and due to our involvement with a vast myriad of industries, especially water and the oil and gas, we were categorized as an essential service provider during the pandemic. This was quite a big accomplishment, especially for a private company like ours.

As a result of the pandemic, it was observed that general security concerns and measures were heightened, thus CCTV installation kept the company thriving. We received up to millions of dollars in CCTV equipment purchases.

This was a very complex project for its time and CTL gained another opportunity to boast – that we have acquired experience under our belts. it was a milestone project that further expanded our capabilities and workforce. However, point to note, even though we now had the engineering capability, the company still needed to outsource physical labor i.e., construction

We Stand Today

• CTL can boast today that we are diversified across the Caribbean, with physical operations in 4 countries.
• Over the years we have become a premier system integration company in Trinidad with little competition, especially when it comes to completing complex projects with diverse disciplines, requiring various capabilities

Diversification enhanced our revenue stream giving the company a more stable footing