Project developers in Australia for many years have been lamenting the lack of suitably qualified welders certified to work on projects such as the LNG developments in the Northern Territory and in Western Australia’s far north.

Kevin Wise from Bechtel said that with a relatively small population in the NT, local employers were having difficulty in hiring and retaining interstate labour. As it was he said the NT supplied around 50% of the non critical craftwork.

While many the specialised LNG process components had to be sourced from specialist suppliers, Australian contractors had supplied most of the structural steel and pipe fabrication.

Wise said 18 major subcontracts had been let to Northern Territory businesses.

The specialised equipment was sourced on a global basis with Wise saying the gas turbines came from Italy, the major process modules from Korea, air coolers from Indonesia, cold boxes from Germany and Spain while the control and emergency systems came from the United States.