The document discusses the current state and future challenges of the oil and gas industry in Western Australia, focusing on workforce changes and upcoming projects. It highlights the transition from large greenfield developments to smaller brownfield expansions, while emphasizing the importance of local engineering skills and collaboration among stakeholders. Recommendations include enhancing knowledge sharing, supporting local personnel development, and engaging universities in research related to floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG).

1. WHERE TO FROM HERE
– OIL AND GAS IN WA
Francis Norman
2015 WA Division President

2. Overview
• Recent history of projects in WA
• Workforce changes and challenges
• Future opportunities and challenges
• EA FLNG report
• Questions…

3. Disclaimers
• Much of the following is drawn from my own views
and beliefs, much of what I will discuss derives from
individual discussions, media commentary and
publically available research material.
• As with many things, it is best to form your own
opinion…

4. WA PROJECT HISTORY

5. Recent history
• By late 2017 if everything goes to plan we will
have increased the WA LNG export capacity from
20mtpa to 50mtpa through the construction of
Pluto, Wheatstone, Gorgon and Prelude.
• At the same time, additional capacity has been
added in NT and Qld
• We should be the largest LNG export nation in the
world
• How well did we do?

7. Breakeven costs keep escalating

8. Project costs

9. Project timeline

10. Committed LNG expenditure

11. Cost increases reducing
competiveness

12. Growth in costs

14. So, what is our reputation
• Are we seen as a high skill, experienced, reliable,
stable workforce who delivers on time and has
realistic demands
Or
• Are we seen as a moderate skill, demanding,
unpredictably mobile workforce who’s projects are
always late and over budget?

15. WORKFORCE CHANGES AND
CHALLENGES

16. Demographic challenges

17. FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

18. Changing profile of opportunities
• WA has, for the majority of the past decade and for
the majority of engineers been the province of
greenfield developments, characterised by massive
local and international spend.
• Much of this is now over, and may not repeat for
several years as the current new assets come on
stream and are optimised.
• Our next few years are likely to be characterised by
small brownfield developments and expansions.
• Are we ready?

19. Potential upcoming projects
Major new projects
• Hess Equus - Semi
• Browse – 3? x FLNG
• Scarborough - FLNG
Expansion projects
• Backfill to DLNG
• Ichthys Phase II
• Gorgon Phase II

20. The Australian Oil & Gas Market – Key projects and prospects
Ichthys
Wheatstone
Gorgon
Prelude
Legend
Pre
execu5on
In
Execu5on
Phase
Equus
Laverda
Crown
Crux
Poseidon
Gorgon
Expansion
Palta
Wheatstone
Expansion
Zola
&
Olympus
Scarborough
Pluto
expansion
Sunrise
Heron
Evans
Shoal
Caldita
Barossa
Browse
Cooper
Basin
Region
Bass
Strait
Canning
Basin
Surat
&
Bowen
Basins
Bonaparte
Cash
Maple

21. Canning Basin

22. Energy prices

23. Then there’s this

24. Global LNG demand projection

25. Potential future trends
• Subsea processing
• Operations and maintenance
• Subsea – Design and fabrication
• Remote operations
• Big data

26. FLNG FUTURE REPORT

27. Our FLNG future
• Report prepared over 2014,
released in mid December
• Incorporated input from
• Operators
• Engineering houses
• Industry bodies
• Universities & tertiary
education
• Research groups
• Report was initiated to get a
better understanding of ‘life
after FLNG’ and the
opportunities and challenges
associated with its arrival.

28. Key findings
• The engineering workforce in Western Australia has a
large number of skills directly relevant to support the
installation, commissioning, operations, maintenance,
ongoing development and eventual decommissioning of
FLNG facilities. These skills are spread across industry
and academia.
• There is a strong desire among all parties for the local
engineering workforce to be as heavily engaged in
FLNG as possible.

29. Key findings
• There is a real appetite for close and meaningful
collaboration among all parties: for operators to work together
across project boundaries to rationalise and optimise the
sharing of information; for engineering companies to
collaborate in supporting the operations of the facilities; and
for academia to collaborate on impactful research.
• With Western Australia being the first location for the
deployment at scale of FLNG, the state has the opportunity to
establish itself as a centre of knowledge and excellence in
the operations and maintenance of the technology. If properly
managed, these skills could then be marketed to
organisations deploying FLNG into other regions of the world.

30. Recommendations
• That all operators of FLNG in Australian waters,
regardless of the state or territory in which they may be
based (WA and NT), collaborate as openly as possible in
the sharing of knowledge, facilities and experience.
• That the industry as a whole works to identify deficiencies
and opportunities in the current skills pool and to find
ways to fill those gaps through development of local
personnel, through focused education and where
necessary through targeted importation of skills.

31. Recommendations
• That a regular (annual) researcher and industry
conference be held to allow academia to showcase
research to industry and industry to advise researchers of
their current needs. That the conference be mindful of
competition such as from Singapore, Norway and
Scotland but be open to organisations wishing to attend.
• That Industry, in the form of both operators and
engineering companies contribute both financially and in
kind (for example through the provision of time for
personnel) to support the coordination efforts of Engineers
Australia.

32. Recommendations
• That the Federal and WA State governments provide
grants, tax incentives and marketing support to stimulate
the involvement and growth of the Western Australian
engineering sector in FLNG.
• That methods are found to include all Western Australian
universities in the research work being undertaken around
FLNG. This could be by specific activities that leverage
the skills of each university or by groups such as WA:ERA
(or the new Floating Systems Centre) expanding to
potentially include CDU, Murdoch and ECU.

33. Sources
• Macquarie private wealth – Australian LNG, strangling the golden goose, Dec 2012,
http://www.macquarie.com.au/dafiles/Internet/mgl/au/apps/retail-newsletter/docs/
2012_12/AustralianLNGOutlook071212e.pdf
• Ernst & Young, Global LNG trends, May 2013,
http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Baku-event-LNG/$FILE/Baku-event-LNG.pdf
• Hays Recruitment, Oil & Gas Global Salary Survey 2015

34. QUESTIONS