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the recommissioning process from the turna- Thus far, Parabellum has kept enough emer-
round and the extended turnaround. The next gency staff on Barrow Island for this not to be
steps are to dry out the systems, and then we’ll an issue. But if Gorgon is forced to shut down,
begin to cool down.” while it would be a blow to Chevron and its part-
Chevron anticipates that LNG production at ners, any additional outages may be welcomed
Train 2 will resume in the second half of Novem- by competitors. The LNG market continues to
ber, having previously been targeting October struggle to absorb oversupply, and while demand
for bringing it back online. and spot prices are picking up as temperatures
The super-major then anticipates taking drop in the Northern Hemisphere, additional
Train 1 offline to inspect its propane kettles for outages could help.
similar weld quality issues shortly after Train 2 is Further outages at Gorgon would come as
back in service. A similar approach will be taken another blow to Chevron, however. Train 2 at
with Train 3 after Train 1 is back online following the plant has been offline since May, having ini-
inspections and – if necessary – repairs. tially been taken out of service for maintenance
But Australian media warned last week that before the weld quality issues on the kettles were
Gorgon was vulnerable to staffing issues at the discovered. Trains 1 and 3 are not anticipated to
company contracted to provide essential fire- have the same issues, though this will be con-
fighting and emergency services on Barrow firmed once they go offline again for further
Island, where the plant is located. This was attrib- inspections.
uted to Western Australia’s border restrictions, Chevron’s challenges at Gorgon illustrate
and a human resources manager at the company, the complexity of LNG export megaprojects,
Parabellum International, warned that these which on occasion can be plagued by tech-
staffing issues threatened to shut Gorgon down. nical issues. Indeed, it appears that Chevron
The island is legally required to have a certain had a lucky escape, given that when the weld
number of emergency services officers. Accord- quality issues at Train 2 were first reported,
ing to a Parabellum human resources manager, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’
Fiona Sammels, who was giving evidence at an Union (AMWU) raised the risk that repairs
unfair dismissal hearing in October, the com- would be insufficient and that the kettles
pany was having roster difficulties. This was would need to be replaced altogether. Chev-
attributed to employees reporting in sick and ron appears to have avoided this, though
having to quarantine owing to border arrange- this will only be confirmed once it inspects
ments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) the remaining two trains, as well as restoring
pandemic. Train 2 to operation.™

Week 45 12•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P5