Anyone else here got the call for Prelude yet?

I'm still on Ichthys supporting INPEX and JKC (seriously this plant makes Wheatstone and Gorgon look easy), but got some calls to move back to support the offshore commissioning, which they say is crap.

Anyone here heard anything from Woodside about building new PAUs? They're hiring a lot of contracts dept staff and it seems like they're mobilizing for a big build, probably brownfields expansion at Pluto LNG.

Hopefully can get on that or else hap to kerja at BHP's South Flank after Ichthys wraps up and I'm out of work lol.

Really depends on the engineering lead you're interviewing with and the operational area. But process engineering you're probably looking at questions in regards to functional safety and PHRA/HAZOPS skills. They'll also generally expect you to vaguely know the JGC Chiyoda process (PR/MR double cooling loop).

This stupid CCPP won't be finished anytime soon, probably will be here till April. That's what happens after picking up a half baked hot potato out of the dirt. It was bound to happen. Now dealing with structural thermal expansion issues and I'm an E&I, not SMP.

Requesting a new contract to go back to Barrow or Wheatstone, 2/2 roster at stupid sum of money ain't bad. Plus I've worked on both projects. In all honesty I'm gonna ask for a Supervisor/Supernintendo position for the next job and fall back on my trade. More pay.

Well, seeing as to the amount of interviews and postings, it seems that the market is picking back up which is good news.

Mining here has gone mad with hiring so they've taken most of the LNG talents that were trained on Gorgon, Wheatstone, Ichthys and Curtis Island, so there's a huge shortage for the ramp up on brownfields work starting next year. Most of my friends left for BHP South Flank

They're probably going to have to bring in foreigners for work.

My friends at Woodside are already mobilizing for the Pluto's onshore expansion, I wouldn't be surprised if any work packages inclusive of module build (plus support systems) go up to 200 million AUD or more. This probably wouldn't even include the onshore portion, I believe the total cited was 4 billion AUD.

This doesn't include Karratha Gas Plant's planned upgrades as as well which is around 5 billion AUD.

lol sadly I've worked on all of them hahaha. Problem with LNG is that people always hire newbies at the start, then realize towards the middle they need experienced experts to pick up the pieces.

Yeah, it's a mess here on Ichthys. There are even disputes with ABB as the switchrooms aren't up to standard.

My advice? Call people. Make important networking connections and have a rough understanding of industry needs. I've got more through friends than I've ever got from any other method.

Also don't go to the big service providers unless you consider it a long term move, you'll learn nothing and overly specialize yourself without the ability to move laterally. Most of the guys/girls I know who have been there try to get out but can't do anything else. But if a particular specialization is your passion, then go for it by all means.

When the resources slump came the big service providers got hit the hardest. Me? I just went into OnG construction to tide myself over. Flexibility and overall large scope ensures that you'll survive just fine.

Either, I'm leaving OnG at the end of the month to go into Lithium mining in Perth or Copper Mining. OnG looks like shit so I'm jumping ship unless Chevron get back to me soon. Don't mind me another 2 or 3 years at Gorgon rates though.

Yes, Halliburton do have a presence up in NT (I believe they have a depot somewhere in Palmerston as well), but I supposed they're very much geared towards fraccing and well completions. Positions are very specialised though.

I guess DeltaV across multiple systems is quite hard to learn if you don't have OPC programming experience or by the very least some skills with MatrikonOPC and other pieces of software like Historian/Wonderware that may go with it. On a unified single vendor system I guess it's easier, but having their material and training helps.

Emerson in Murrarie, Brisbane provided me with my DeltaV and AMS training many years ago and it takes a lot of hands on time to be good at it. My suggestion is to look at times where your company makes a big purchase from them and then ask them to bundle in free training as part of the package, that's how I got mine.

In my opinion if you want to learn controls, start with the fundamental level protocols, such as HART, PROFIBUS and MODBUS and learn to work them at bit level. From there work your way up to control loops, BPCS programming and then on to the hard stuff like Functional Safety and PHRA. I recommend doing both FS and PHRA with HIMA Australia as they're one of the two big FS companies (them and Triconex), I did both with them and the have excellent trainers!

Well, I'm enjoying a break for now. I've accepted an offer to work an office job in Perth as part of management for a tad over my original Ichthys hourly rate. 8:30 to 4:30, Monday to Friday. Time for a little rest I guess.

Well I assumed you were a chem eng grad, it quite rare that chem eng grads go into the nitty gritty of controls, that's usually the realm of E&I or ICE Engineers, but I've seen Process people do it as well though.

I suggest starting by getting the plant control diagram. If you're interested, I've attached the totalized control scheme for Gorgon. This may be of help referencing things overall.

Yeah I was contractor for Ichthys. Inpex paid ok but it's worth noting they were Monday to Friday staff on a permanent contract. Most of us on the contractor end doing specialized work were paid well (Late 2s to 3xx,xxx per annum), this being on a 3/1 roster with shorter Saturdays and Sundays off. We mostly lived at the Mercure or the Palmerston Rydges. My 2 years are done now.


Attached File(s)
 Gorgon_Large_Control__Diagram__1_.pdf ( 863.32k ) Number of downloads: 66

Yeah you may be right come to think of it, the 3 chem eng grads I know.....well one sells makeup, the other is in Weatherford Wireline and the other worked with me as an SMP Engineer.

If you want my 2 cents, control and automation is one of those things you learn from ground up (eg; element/actuator -> instrument -> logic -> BPCS -> SCADA -> backend), I learned more doing my 1 year of my Cert III apprenticeship than I did at University.

If you have a little cash lying around and some spare time, these PLCs are where I learned the basics (remember that they all follow IEC-61131);
https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/home/home

After that you can graduate to bootleg copies of RSLogix 500/5000 and second hand PLCs from Ebay.

I practiced a lot building a home setup, in 12 months I was building control systems for the likes of Origin Energy, Shell and SANTOS.

More like Bachelor EnE -> MEng Power Systems -> Cert III Dual Trade -> MSc Petroleum -> MBA

Went to work after MEng, so the rest I did while working. I was very bored on Gorgon.

This post has been edited by empire23: Jan 24 2019, 07:48 PM

Low temp oxidization of shale/coal/kerogen?

I forgot my res eng long time edi

But due to heat and compression, sometimes there is low temp combustion which creates small pockets of CO. We usually see this in mining though.