From Mining Australia:
With the construction phase winding down for LNG projects on Curtis Island, key contractor Bechtel is laying off approximately 600 employees per month.
Gladstone Observer reported that camps have already begun the decommissioning phase, and that the company is looking at offloading equipment and machinery, including $9 million worth of vehicles.
More than 26,000 workers have been employed at the QCLNG, APLNG and GLNG projects since the start of construction in 2011.
It is expected construction will be complete in 12 months, and that Bechtel will have completely demobilised by December 2016.
Bechtel general manager Kevin Berg…said that he expected workers to find employment in metals processing and mining industries.
“Historically when oil prices are low the metals and mines industry comes up, so I would hope we will see that happen again now,” he said.
Wrong this time. It’s a super cycle and super bust. They’ll find jobs in residential construction for a while and then that boomlet will pop as well.
On the other side of the nation, the LNG wind down has been delayed some more, from Fairfax:
Chevron has warned it may miss its revised year-end target to ship its first cargo from its huge $US54 billion Gorgon liquefied natural gas project in Western Australia due to the risk of labour disputes, bad weather and equipment malfunctions.
Jay Johnson, executive vice-president upstream for the California-based energy giant, told investors on Friday that several issues still hanging over the project meant the first cargo could slip into early 2016.
…The project was initially budgeted at $US37 billion and was due to begin production at the end of the third quarter of 2014, 60 months after the investment was sanctioned, but both the budget and timing have gradually slid.
…Mr Johnson was speaking at Chevron’s second-quarter investor briefing, at which the United States major reported a 90 per cent collapse in profits to $US571 million ($781 million), from $US5.7 billion in the June quarter last year.
My sources tell me that the project is costing considerably more than the revised figure, that it is indeed running late, that it and Wheatstone are bleeding Chevron dry and that other partners on the project are not happy, John.
