Something most people forget is that there is a limited amount of staff and contractors in the world who are mobile and who can design, build and staff such plant. Mate has clearly told me that they were expecting to be able to access experienced staff at the end of PNG stages of the project but with extra train etc etc those staff were never released. that means the cost for any other operator to get good staff increases and it is the same old story - you need staff with experience. mates other comment was that additional trains may look at coming in at such and such a number but in reality as staff are on board and they are repeating what has previously being engineered it goes so much more smoothly in time and in issue that you come up against.
OSH has been very smart training and educating locals for many years at different levels and these staff are sticky OSH and the project. The whole system of training and using locals , sponsoring through Uni and placing in other businesses means they have a pool of staff gradually coming through the system and they will never be able to train enough.
I see numbers for some other proposed LNG projects and after seeing what OSH has paid and achieved I can easily add 50 to 200% to these numbers as it never runs smoothly and finance isn't guaranteed. OSH had the same issue but once locked in it has worked out over the years.
You can understand why other operators like the idea of FLNG processing after the hassle even dealing with aussie govts as it gives them a option to float the FLNG plant off somewhere else if the politics , tax etc changes but it comes at a ongoing cost . May be cheaper initially for offshore construction in a shipyard of a a small size FLNG but nothing easy after that in regards to expansion, storms downtime.
Bottom line is the longer OSH keeps expanding and considering new trains the harder and more expensive it will be for any other operator to get a LNG project financed and staffed and then you have the politics and green issues in the region. You know it is hard when Woodside can't get it over the line.
OSH Price at posting:
$9.15 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
