Green light for Bechtel Pluto camp

A $180 million project to house up to 2,500 fly-in, fly-out workers for the expansion of Woodside Petroleum's Pluto LNG plant was approved by the local joint development assessment panel in December.

The facility will be built at Gap Ridge, west of Karratha, on the same site leased by Woodside for the original Pluto construction project.

US-based Bechtel has been chosen as the lead engineering and construction contractor for the Pluto train two project, and is the proponent for the new workers' camp.

The facility will be in place only six years, with 12 months to set up, four years of operation, and a further 12 months to decommission.

Application documents note an expect peak workforce would need around 2,223 beds, with a further 277 beds to be built to allow contingencies.

The peak is expected in March 2022 and will last until September 2022.

“While local hire opportunities from Karratha will be available, and positions will be advertised on the Karratha Local Jobs portal, Bechtel is mindful of the balance between providing local hire opportunities versus taking skilled labour from existing Karratha businesses,” the application said. 

“There will also be opportunity for Bechtel management staff employees to relocate to Karratha as residential employees.”

The company expected no more than 1 per cent of the workforce would want to relocate to Karratha for the project, with the remainder to be fly-in, fly-out.

It comes after construction of Woodside’s new Bay Village facility near Karratha started in June, after a $400 million contract was awarded to Multiplex, Compass Group, DIF and Brookfield Financial to build, own and operate the facility.

The new facility, with 604 accommodation units, was expected to be operational by mid-2020.