A critical part of developing the Northern Territory’s gas infrastructure network has been connecting the Ichthys Project to existing gas facilities in the territory.
In December 2014, Power and Water Corporation NT awarded McConnell Dowell a contract to design, procure, construct and commission metering skids and an interconnecting 150 mm 12 inch pipeline for gas transmission between the existing Wickham Point Pipeline and INPEX’s gas plant at Blaydin Point in Darwin.
Not only will the pipeline provide gas to the Ichthys Project, but it will also provide a means of emergency gas supply for Territorians, according to McConnell Dowell Project Manager David Bird.
Design work for McConnell Dowell commenced in December 2014, and construction was complete in November 2015.
Commissioning of the facility and pipeline is scheduled to commence shortly.
Local contractors
Of strong concern to gas industry operators and contractors operating in the Northern Territory is the successful engagement of local contractors, so as to ensure a legacy for Territorians after construction has subsided.
“McConnell Dowell used many local subcontractors in Darwin during the construction, and the detailed design and procurement of the skids was undertaken in Melbourne. Although we looked internationally we ultimately selected a Melbourne company, Furnace Engineering,” said Mr Bird.
According to Mr Bird, overwhelmingly skids are produced in Asia, and are less frequently produced locally. Local Darwin subcontractors were used for pipe fabrication, civil work and electrical work.
In addition to sourcing local contractors, Mr Bird says that McConnell Dowell was also able to use skilled local employees rather than employ FIFO workers.
“A lot of the work McConnell Dowell did was about building relationships, with our owner team and also with all affected stakeholders,” said Power and Water Corporation’s Construction Supervisor Peter Darby.
Mr Bird concurred, “A big ticket item that McConnell Dowell has been able to bring to this job – and I think it actually is McConnell Dowell’s strength – is the engagement and upskilling of smaller local subcontractors who may not have all the requisite safety procedures up to the standard required to comply with the oil and gas industry.
“However, we’ve been able to tap into the local subcontractor skills and capacity by providing management system and processes assistance and working collaboratively to anticipate and resolve issues before they occur. This has been a win-win for all parties involved. An example is the use of McConnell Dowell templates for Safe Work Method Statements.
“It becomes their document, and therefore we have upskilled that company. Our civil contractor is a great example of that here, and he’s really embraced it. He’s been a great success story and we look forward to other opportunities to work together”
New direction for the pipeline
According to Mr Darby, having the company own its own pipeline is a new direction.
“The majority of the gas network [infrastructure] in the Northern Territory is not owned and operated by the government, Power and Water own the gas and get it transported by others to the user. In the case of this pipeline, it was slightly different – we made a strategic decision to own the asset.”
For McConnell Dowell, the innovation was around optimising the design, manufacturing and constructing the skid to ensure a cost-effective project.
“I think actually ending up with one skid that was transportable by road was a great outcome of this process. When you talk about transporting a skid across the country, or from overseas, its a difficult operation,” said Mr Darby.
“One of the first things we did on this job was have a design workshop in the boardroom of McConnell Dowell’s office down in Melbourne. So we got Power and Water down from Darwin, and we got Furnace Engineering and Aurecon in as the Power and Water Corporation’s designers. From there we reviewed all the different disciplines over a whole day and really nutted it out. This collaboration yielded immediate benefits.”
Another innovation for the project was in logistics.
“For McConnell Dowell, a critical part of the job was ensuring the constructability suited the timeline of the dry season. The whole operation was programmed to complete construction, start to finish, in one dry season,” said Mr Darby.
Safety on a live site
Mr Bird concluded that it was refreshing to work with such a small team after previously working on major projects in Queensland.
“It’s fantastic. Everyone does what they say. I’m involved at every level.
“The safety engagement was excellent. Because it’s such a small crew, it’s not often that your project manager knows every guy’s name on site. We have been able to be proactive about identifying the individual trades, the types of messages we need to provide to them in the mornings and during the day.
“We’ve also had no incidents. All the hours we’ve worked have been completely incident-free. The culture and work ethic demonstrated by the team has been very good.”