The recent price of oil is not slowing work on mega projects like Sasol’s $9 billion project in Southwest Louisiana.
“I probably get two or three calls a week from various agencies, and they’re somewhat distraught because of the price of oil,” stated Rob Clark, Sasol vice president and project director of U.S. Mega Projects. “It hasn’t affected the projects we’re doing one single bit. As long as we have cheap gas in the region, then we’re going to be doing a lot of business. So confusing the price of oil with the price of gas at this period is a misnomer.”
Clark discussed Sasol’s approaches to finding craft labor workers and his experiences overseeing mega projects in the Gulf Coast during the Petrochemical Engineering & Construction 2015 conference held recently in New Orleans.
“The way we treat craft labor now is somewhat different than it used to be,” he explained. “It used to be if you busted a weld, then you went home. But now there are second chances and additional training if there’s a possibility the craft worker has the opportunity to contribute.”
To help build the workforce in Southwest Louisiana, Sasol has been working closely with training schools in the area like SOWELA Technical Community College in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and professional organizations such as Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC).
“ABC is very active around here, and community colleges have all sorts of scholarships and programs now for craft training,” he stated. “Keeping the craft labor is something you want to do, and we’ve spent a fair bit of time on that. There are also second chance programs for people who have criminal records to get into the crafts.”
Clark pointed out the need for craft labor isn’t attracting the unemployed from other regions of the country, which is something that wasn’t necessarily the case decades ago.
“People seem to be unwilling to relocate,” he said. “In the past, people would move to where the work is and now that’s being somewhat pushed aside, so there are shortages on skilled crafts and that’s one of the reasons why we’re trying to modularize.”
Some of the process units Sasol has on the project are located in the middle of the plant, so modularization concepts were very difficult to execute in terms of constructability, logistics and accessibility.
“We spent a fair bit of time on logistics and travel studies: how to get modules — in my case — from China to Lake Charles effectively,” he stated. “We’re spending a lot of time on scenario planning of what if modules come in out of sequence.”
Sasol is fabricating some of its modules in China and others in the U.S. The cracker for the project in Lake Charles is being modularized in China, which the company expects will mean 1,000 fewer people on-site for craft labor.
“There have been some mega projects in the Gulf Coast where physically it took an hour to get onto the jobsite and an hour to get out,” he explained. “And they had a very difficult time with retention because it was such a nuisance getting to work and getting out of work. We’ve spent a great deal of time with the logistics of how to get them in and out of the site safely and efficiently, so we can maximize the tool time they have while they’re on site.”
Safety for the jobsite has been of paramount importance, particularly with 7,500-10,000 people on a jobsite, Clark said.
“So we’re spending a lot of time with the safety program and putting the incentives out there for the contractors and for the workers to practice safety,” he added. “The safety component of the project has really been a central focus since we started.”
For more information, visit www.sasol.com or call +27 11 441 3111.
