Maintenance workers start strike at Karratha gas plant, Pluto LNG

The Offshore Alliance, which includes the Maritime Union of Australia and Australian Workers’ Union, said in a social media post that the enterprise agreement offered by UGL is below industry standards.

“The end result of UGL’s inability to negotiate or accept industrial standards is protected industrial action,” it said.

The Offshore Alliance said that “PIA commences today at KGP-Pluto and will continue until our EBA is sorted.”

A Woodside spokesperson told LNG Prime the company is aware that UGL is involved in enterprise bargaining negotiations with “some of its employees who work on Woodside facilities.”

“These negotiations are strictly between UGL, its relevant employees, and their bargaining representatives,” the spokesperson said.

“Woodside respects the rights of contractor employees to engage in protected industrial action under the fair work act,” it said.

“Any potential protected industrial action involving UGL employees will be managed by UGL in accordance with the requirements of the act,” the spokesperson added.

NWS LNG and Pluto LNG

The Karratha gas plant is part of the Woodside-operated North West Shelf (NWS) project.

The NWS project has supplied energy to Australian and international customers since the 1980’s.

Last year, Woodside completed the permanent retirement of the second LNG train at its NWS LNG terminal due to declining natural gas supplies.

This resulted in a reduction of the Karratha gas plant’s capacity from 16.9 mtpa to 14.3 mtpa.

Including the retired train, the plant has five LNG trains, launched between 1989 and 2008, and most of these volumes supply customers in Japan.

The facility also has domestic gas trains, condensate stabilization units, and LPG units.

On the other hand, the nearby Pluto LNG terminal, which shipped its 1,000th LNG cargo in April last year, currently has one operational train with a capacity of 4.9 mtpa, with construction ongoing at the second liquefaction train.

The first liquefaction train gets gas from the offshore Pluto and Xena gas fields via a 180 km trunkline.

Pluto LNG is underpinned by long-term sales agreements with Kansai Electric and EIG’s MidOcean Energy, each holding a 5 percent interest in the project.

In November 2021, Woodside took a final investment decision on the Scarborough and Pluto LNG Train 2 developments.

Bechtel started building the second Pluto train in 2022.

Woodside expects to ship the first LNG cargo from the $12.5 billion Scarborough project in Western Australia in the fourth quarter of this year.