Barzan Natural Gas Project, Qatar

Qatar, with a population of less than one million citizens, is among the most wealthy oil-rich states in the world. The country’s natural gas reserves are equivalent to almost 14% of all known natural gas reserves and are the third largest in the world behind Russia and Iran. In 2006, Qatar surpassed Indonesia to become the world’s largest exporter of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG).

The Barzan Gas Project, located offshore in the North Field, will play a significant role in meeting Qatar’s rising domestic demand as a new air and seaport are built, planned transport, health and education projects take shape and, last but not least, the country hosts the 2022 football World Cup.

If you're interested in working on this project, contact Darren Laidlaw darren.laidlaw@nesglobaltalent.com

Initial talks to develop the field began in 2007 with the planning process starting in 2008. During 2010, the front-end engineering and design stage was completed and fundraising initiated. RasGas is the developer and operator of the Barzan Gas project with Qatar Petroleum (QP) owning a 93% stake and ExxonMobil 7%.

The joint venture agreement for development of the $8.7bn Barzan Gas Project was signed in January 2011 by QP and ExxonMobil. The launch ceremony, hosted by QP, Exxonmobil and RasGas on 1 November 2011, marked the beginning of the execution phase for the upstream engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) stage of the Barzan Gas project.

The project includes a natural gas offshore production system with conventional wellhead platforms, intra-field pipelines and export pipelines to an onshore Barzan Gas Plant, the site for two newly constructed gas trains located in Ras Laffan Industrial City some 80km north of Doha. The drilling platform to supply the Barzan Gas plant will be located 80km north east of Ras Laffan Industrial City, with onshore and offshore facilities to be completed by JGC of Japan and Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea.

The first train will come on stream in 2014 and it is expected that first gas will produce 1.4 billion cubic feet per day, the equivalent of 500,000 barrels of oil. The second train will be ready in 2015. When completed, the two new processing trains, together with other RasGas facilities (LNG and pipeline sales gas), will produce around 11 billion standard cubic feet per day, the equivalent of almost 2 million barrels of oil, making RasGas the largest gas producer in Qatar.

NES Global Talent and the Barzan Natural Gas Project

Darren Grainger, NES Global Talent Regional Director for the Middle East, relishes the challenge of supplying engineers to what he regards as “one of the most innovative engineering projects ever undertaken in Qatar".

Darren is responsible for five physical offices located in Al Khobar, Abu Dhabi, Basra, Doha and Dubai, encompassing 50 staff and the hundreds of specialist engineers we have seconded to respective clients, as well as initiating and implementing the contract with RasGas to supervise EPC contractors located in South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Japan and Qatar.

The provision and placement of engineers to the project contractors is the responsibility of Adam Price, NES Global Talent Regional Director Asia, and his team based in Singapore while Darren Laidlaw, Recruitment Manager for NES Global Talent and his team based in Doha, provide the requisite skills needed in Qatar. NES Global Talent has been responsible for recruiting multi-discipline engineers to oversee engineering to procurement of the offshore fabrication in Korea and the float over to offshore Qatar.

Darren said: "We have also supplied engineers to oversee JCG in Yokohama, which has been awarded the process train EPC that will follow the project to onshore Doha, where the process trains will be constructed within Ras Laffan Industrial City. In Qatar, we assist JGC by supplying multi-discipline construction engineers and inspectors for building the process trains. For this project, we deal with the venture project controls department within RasGas and liaise with the business support department of JGC.

"We attribute our success in winning the RasGas manpower supply contract to long experience of supplying multi-discipline engineering personnel from a global talent pool responsible for delivering previous LNG offshore and onshore projects in Qatar itself. This local presence and past performance record is strengthened by our global knowledge and office locations and assignment support centres within Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, the home base of many of the LNG contractors."

Sourcing and mobilising engineers

"For both our clients as well as our engineering contractors, our ability to source and mobilise engineers for the project in locations that will vary throughout the project life cycle is invaluable. For example, for this project we mobilised a candidate from the UK to work initially in Japan, then Malaysia and Korea and finally in Qatar," Darran added.

"This required flexible visa support, payroll and in-country support, and we have dedicated managers in each location to ensure a smooth logistical transfer and to assist candidates moving from country-to-country, whilst ensuring full compliance and a full logistic transfer. This allows the candidate to focus on the actual delivery of the project.

"It is our expertise in country and our global footprint  that ensures our competitive advantage over our rivals. We're greatly valued by our clients and candidates. One of the biggest and most interesting challenges for this multi-country, multi-stage project, with its multiple stakeholder's, is selecting and working with local partners with different practices and corporate cultures."

 If you're interested in working here, please contact Darren Laidlaw: darren.laidlaw@nesglobaltalent.com