GE Opens the Largest Maintenance and Training Centre for the Australian Oil and Gas Industry

• $100 Million Complex to Support Creation of Local Service and Maintenance Industry
• Industry Wide Community of Technical Best Practice to Build High-Level Skills in Australia and Address Skills Shortage
• Investment Part of GE’s Long-Term Commitment to Australia

GE Oil & Gas this week opened its $100 million technology and learning complex in Jandakot, Western Australia, to support the development of skills for the oil and gas sector and provide its first in-country support and maintenance centre for the upstream industry.

The biggest complex of its kind in Australia, the scope of the project has grown from $80 million to $100 million in response to overwhelming feedback and demand from the oil and gas industry in Western Australia. GE Oil & Gas expects to deliver 4,000 training days in 2012 and has already begun to service its major equipment at the centre.

This will be the first GE facility to offer the full range of technical training required to meet both the demands of the resources boom in Australia and the need to increase productivity in the sectors facing this rising demand.

The service centre will be supporting, among others, key equipment employed in liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains that compress and refrigerate natural gas transforming it into liquid so that it can be transported. Every day an LNG train is out of action can cost up to $15 million, so maximising uptime and optimising maintenance schedules plays a crucial role in productivity. GE’s Jandakot centre will provide in-country maintenance, reducing downtime while parts are serviced overseas and creating a secondary service industry in the region.

Chevron Australia, which operates the Gorgon and Wheatstone projects, is one of the key energy companies set to train hundreds of its Perth engineering and technical staff at the GE facility.

Chevron had so far invested $12 million on recruiting and training 40 apprentices and trainees in preparation for when the Gorgon LNG and domestic gas plant became operational.  Chevron also employs 120 university graduates across a range of oil and gas related fields.

As part of the skills deliver, GE Oil & Gas has partnered with Chevron, Woodside, ConocoPhilips, Manufacturing Skills Australia, Navitas, ACEPT (Australian Centre for Energy and Process Training) and Apprenticeships Australia to create a Community of Technical Best Practice. This initiative has received funding and support from the Australian Federal Government in recognition of the impact it will have on the skills shortage in the resources market. The federal government and the Critical Skills Investment Fund have also invested AUD$2.67 million towards the training centre to build the community of technical best practice.

It will provide the necessary skills, training and on-ground customer support for the oil and gas, energy, mining, healthcare, transportation and water industries helping to drive synergies across all of GE’s business units.

GE Oil & Gas has operated in Australia for more than 40 years with the supply of the first LNG train in the Northwest Shelf operated by Woodside. Operations today involve engagement with some of the major resources projects spanning from Western Australia to Queensland.

The businesses that comprise GE Energy - GE Power & Water, GE Energy Management and GE Oil & Gas - work together with more than 100,000 global employees and 2010 revenues of $38 billion, to provide integrated product and service solutions in all areas of the energy industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; as well as other alternative fuels and new grid modernisation technologies to meet 21st century energy needs.

Whilst training will be conducted for those employed by Chevron, Woodside and ConocoPhillips, other entry pathways are available for those seeking an opportunity to train and be employed in the industry through:

ACEPT: http://www.challenger.wa.edu.au/Workingwithindustry/AustralianCentreforEnergyandProcessTraining/Pages/ACEPT.aspx

Apprenticeships Australia: http://www.australianapprenticeships.gov.au/

Manufacturing Skills Australia: http://www.mskills.com.au/