Skills crisis not a problem for Woodside’s Scarborough gas development with option to hire interstate

A Woodside manager of the $16.5 billion Scarborough gas development says he does not expect skills shortages to affect the project as they look to provide local employment opportunities. Woodside and BHP signed off on the multi-billion dollar LNG project in November last year, cementing another 30 years of gas exports from Australia. Woodside will develop the Scarborough gas fields through offshore facilities connected by a 430km pipeline to its Pluto LNG onshore plant near Karratha. Scarborough development senior vice president Michael Robinson said he does not expect skills shortages to impact the project. “We’re expecting workers to come from outside of this region and then equally as border restrictions open up, there’ll be opportunities for others from interstate to potentially come along and join the project,” he said. Mr Robinson said local employment opportunities will be promoted through Bechtel. “There’ll be local opportunities that will be advertised here in Karratha but we expect, given the scale of the project, that we’ll need workers from outside of this region with a focus on Western Australian employment,” he said. “(Indigenous employment) is part of that local content and opportunities so we’re actually talking to some of the Indigenous communities, traditional custodians, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, etc., already about trying to match their capability sets to the opportunities associated not only with the construction but obviously ongoing heritage management.” The project is expected to create 3200 construction jobs and produce first gas in 2026.