Darwin’s Inpex gas plant to shutdown for 26 days sparking mini jobs boom

THE Inpex-operated $55 billion Ichthys LNG Project is shutting down in two weeks.

THE Inpex-operated $55 billion Ichthys LNG Project is shutting down in two weeks.

The shutdown will spark a jobs boom with the workforce ballooning out to 1400 as Inpex engages in one of the most critical phases of its short operational history in Darwin.

Head of Australian operations for the Japanese energy giant Hitoshi Okawa flew to Darwin to address workers to run through the significance of their work during shutdown.

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“The safety of this facility is our number one priority and my message to staff was “Let’s demonstrate our capability to the world,” Mr Okawa told the Sunday Territorian. “This is a very big shutdown for 26 days and our capability will be watched by the world,” Mr Okawa told the Sunday Territorian. Getting the maintenance shutdown right is etched in Mr Okawa’s mind by the fact that total shutdown means Inpex will be have no revenue from Ichthys for 26 days.

“At this moment more than 75 per cent of Inpex’s revenue is coming from Ichthys LNG, so it is not a core part of Inpex’s business, it is a super core asset for Inpex.,” he said. “If workers find something wrong during the shutdown then we must know. This is a costly exercise to shutdown Ichthys, but importantly I wanted to make it clear safety is paramount and cost comes last.

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“Without Inpex running we have no future, so that’s why this shutdown is so important and why safety is so critical to our operations.

“To be a first class operator this shutdown will be the final test. During shutdown our worker numbers will increase to 1400. Of these we expect more than 60 per cent of this will be local jobs and will be fly in fly out workers.”

Mr Hitoshi said like other Territory resource and mining companies Inpex wants to have a predominantly locally based workforce

“We’re moving towards 100 per cent residential,” he said.