Woodside LNG Train Emission Stacks Get Express Treatment

Leading Western Australian steel fabricator, Pacific Industrial Company (PIC), has recently designed, fabricated, surface treated and refractory lined three emission stacks as part of a major A$2 billion expansion program for Woodside Energy Limited.

The emission stacks, which incorporate 340 tonnes of XLERPLATE® steel, are bound for Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia's far North West as part of Woodside's A$2 billion capacity boost at the North West Shelf Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Phase V Expansion project.

The expansion, which began in the third quarter of 2005, will increase the capacity of Woodside Burrup by 4.2 Megatonnes per annum. Woodside expects to export the first LNG cargoes from the new facilities late in 2008.

A family owned enterprise, Pacific Industrial Company (PIC) specialises in all aspects of steel fabrication and construction, including design, engineering, procurement, installation, commissioning and related electrical, instrumentation and civil works.

"We have been involved with every major resource project in Western Australia in the last 30 years," said George C. Petley, Pacific Industrial Company's Business Development Manager.

"Our state of the art facilities and proven expertise made us a logical choice to manufacture the emission stacks. We put together a detailed bid for the project and this, combined with PIC's previous experience in this class of work, led to our success. We have a very good relationship with the client and many of our staff and workshop employees have worked on Woodside projects since the construction of LNG Train 1 and 2."

PIC is known for the extensive preparation and quality control which characterise its jobs. Company executives even visited the office of Foster Wheeler Worley, Woodside's UK based engineering, procurement and construction contractor, to ensure effective collaboration.

PIC is a long time user of XLERPLATE® steel from BlueScope Steel. For the emissions stacks project it purchased 340 tonnes of 250 Grade XLERPLATE® steel which was then formed and welded into 42 'cans'.

"The stacks are technically very complex," George Petley said. "They have to be designed for seismic and cyclone loadings as well as for their ability to do their job safely as emission stacks in a highly volatile plant. There are not many other companies around that could have taken this task on as successfully."

Nearly 310 tonnes of refractory material were used to line the XLERPLATE® steel of the 42 'cans' which were then formed up into seven stack components up to 20 metres in length and surface treated. All of this work is being carried out in PIC's Naval Base (Kwinana) workshops.

When complete the stack components, ranging from 57 tonnes to 160 tonnes will be road transported via the High Wide Load corridor to the Australian Marine Complex loadout facility at Henderson, nearly five kilometres from the PIC premises at Naval Base. They will then be loaded onto a Heavy Lift ship for sea transport approximately 1,800 kilometres to Burrup LNG 5.

Following delivery to the off loading wharf at Burrup the stack units will again be road transported the last few kilometres and placed by large cranes onto foundation bolts already prepared and cast in position utilising templates and jigs fabricated by PIC at the beginning of the project.

The overall height of the emission stacks is 40 metres and the overall diameters range from 3.5 to 6.5 metres. Fully assembled the largest stack weighs 360 tonnes.

According to George Petley, this was a good job for PIC and Western Australian industry. It retains much of the skills and knowledge from previous learning curves and has enabled these experiences to be passed on to current apprentices.

"It was a complex job in terms of design and steel fabrication," he said. "It required a lot of man hours, technical expertise, space, large capacity cranes and good working relationships with subcontractors. These stacks represent the latest in design. The project is a huge investment for Woodside and is required to work around the clock for many years to come, producing millions of tonnes of LNG per year from equipment situated in a very corrosive environment, so it is crucial that the stacks were built of the highest quality material."

George Petley emphasises the importance of having a reliable supplier to meet project deadlines, "It is critical to our business. Without a good supplier you cannot deliver the goods as required to the client."

"We would fall behind in production and would not meet the end dates. A supplier has to be able to deliver a quality product at the right time. It is no good sending a good product if it is too late. BlueScope Steel has provided us with very reliable lead times, and the service is second to none. We are in communication with them regularly and the quality of the product is world class," he adds.