Why am I getting Null Application id Returned for Project Area Creation Using Java API ?

For the following Project Area Creation code:

ITeamRepository repo = TeamPlatform.getTeamRepositoryService().getTeamRepository(rtcURL);

IProcessItemService service = (IProcessItemService) repo.getClientLibrary(IProcessItemService.class);

IProcessDefinition processDefinition = service.findProcessDefinition(processId, IProcessItemService.ALL_PROPERTIES , MONITOR);

IProjectArea project = service.createProjectArea();

            project.setName(name);
            project.setProcessDefinition(processDefinition);
            service.save(project, MONITOR);

(Logging and all is taken care in code, not mentioned here)

Below exception is thrown:

Invalid application id 'null'. A valid registered fronting application id must be provided to access the JTS.

Please let me know if anyone faced and solved this.

Thanks
Vab