10.5 SKILLS AND SKILLS TRAINING

Welders

Welder requirements for an offshore structure fabrication yard, in simple layman terms, fall into 3 basic categories, namely those people qualified to

·  primary (structural) steel

·  secondary (non-structural) steel, and

·  piping*.

(*Note: “Piping” here means as in process or utilities piping. Not to be confused with “tubulars”, which form part of a structure and are categorised as primary steel.)

Primary steel welders

Material of construction - “Primary steel” is the material used for constructing the main structural components of an offshore facility, such as a jacket, deck, or module support frame. Steel used for an offshore structure must generally conform to the American Petroleum Institute’s “Recommended Practice for Planning, Designing and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms – Working Stress Design”, API RP-2A, which lists the recommended material properties for structural steel plates, steel shapes (i.e. channel, WF beams, angle bars, etc) and structural steel pipes. Data can be found in Tables 8.1.4-1, 8.1.4-2 and 8.2.1-1 respectively of this Standard.

As a minimum, steel plates and structural shapes must conform to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) grade A36 (yield strength 250 Mpa). Structural shapes required for higher strength applications must comply with ASTM specification A572, grade 50 (345 Mpa). Pipes must comply with API specification 5L, grade B (or ASTM A53, grade B), at a minimum. For higher strength applications, pipe must conform to API 5L, grade X52.

Welder qualifications - All welders, welding operators and tack welders of primary steel have to be qualified to Parts C, D & E of Section 5 of AWS (American Welding Society) D1.1. - 2002M, before commencing work on a Project. Special qualifications are required for welders of “roots” which will not be back-welded. All welders must be qualified for “groove” welding in all positions of pipe, tubing and plate.

Welders required to weld T, K, or Y tubular intersections have to qualify in the 6GR position. By way of illustrating the quality required in a 6GR positioned weld, tests at welder qualification stage require that the full circumference of each weld be radiographed twice.

Numbers of welders required – Generally, welders qualified for offshore primary structural steel, especially for tubulars in the 6GR position, are in short supply throughout the world, but of course demand for their services will always depend upon the types of structures being worked upon, the ratio of tubulars to other sections in a structure, quantities of welds, the program schedule, peaking of activities.

Taking the Mossgas MSF contract (1989/90) as an example, the primary steel welding program extended over a period of approximately 16 months, averaging approx 50 operatives, but peaking at over 100, located in Vereeniging, Port Elizabeth and Durban. In parallel, the Jacket program was in progress, both in Vereeniging and at Saldanha Bay, South Africa, and in the United Kingdom, requiring a very much larger labour force.

A reasonable ball park estimate of total primary steel welders engaged on the Mossgas Project, therefore, would have been +/- 150 average over 18-20 months, peaking at +/- 300. With natural turnover, a probable +/- 400 would have been tested/trained and gone through the books.

(Note: Where references are made in this report to statistics from the Mossgas Project, a 45 hour week has been used to extrapolate numbers of people.)

Availability in South Africa – There is no register of welders which can be called up to determine how many primary steel welders might be available in the event of another offshore structure contract coming to South Africa. A few of the welders who were qualified and employed on previous jobs, including Mossgas, might still be around and doing similar work, but the nature of the welding industry is such that qualifications expire within 6 months of a job ending and all have to be re-qualified on a job specific basis when a new project kicks off.

A consensus amongst people in the engineering profession is that primary steel welders would be very difficult to find in South Africa in the short term and that a total new training program would have to be initiated were more than a dozen to be required. A South African manpower organisation has reported that it has 30-40 such welders employed around the country, but such organisations are notoriously unreliable and always ready to promise more than can be delivered. All highly skilled welders in this country are likely to be in full employment and only a small percentage might be encouraged to move/leave home for more attractive remuneration on a job elsewhere.

Secondary Steel Welders

Materials of Construction – Secondary, or non-structural, offshore steelwork is that which is made up entirely of Type 111, V1, V111 or X11 steel

Welder qualifications – Welders and welder operators have to be qualified in accordance with BS 4871: Part 1 or equivalent. In layman terms, non-structural steel welding is basically the simplest form of welding in carbon steel, although welders must still be tested to exacting standards and be required to maintain a high standard of quality in production.

Numbers of welders required – Requirements would depend upon the type(s) of components/assemblies being produced in the Yard or elsewhere. For a fixed leg jacket, quantities of secondary steel would be minimal, whilst a greater proportion would be required for a deck assembly, and a substantial, if not total, proportion would be built into modules or other topside assemblies. Standardised, bulk steel fabrications could be largely sub-contracted out to other South African companies, more cost effectively than being produced in the yard’s workshops, where numbers of welders required would be no more of a problem than for major, conventional steel projects in the past.

Using the Mossgas MSF contract again as an example of in-yard welder requirements, approx. 300 man-months were expended on the shop fabrication and field erection welding of +/- 300 tonnes of “outfitting steel”, peaking at 30-40 persons for a period of 6 months.

Availability in South Africa – Finding sufficient welders to man the fabrication of conventional steelwork in South Africa is very unlikely to pose a problem, no matter how large an offshore contract might be obtained. Only in abnormal circumstances, such as an unprecedented rate of industrial expansion or surge in exports of fabricated steel, could a shortage be envisaged, particularly since so much can be automated. With a high rate of unemployment in the country, it is reasonable to assume that training could fill the gaps.

Piping Welders

Materials of construction – If the product is a jacket, or simple deck structure, the question of piping is unlikely to arise. However, if an integrated services deck or MSF or modules, or any combination thereof are required; the yard could be handling large quantities of piping in sizes ranging from 25mm to 900mm in diameter and in a variety of materials, from basic carbon steel to high chrome content alloys and stainless steel.

Welder qualifications – In general and as a minimum, welders of oil and gas industry piping must be qualified and coded to the ASME IX level in both G.T.A.W. (Argon/TigWelding) as well as in S.M.A.W. (Stick Welding) in 6G position. A welder is required to undergo testing for each type of piping material that he/she may be requested to work on. Standards are as high as for primary steel welding, although a welder cannot interchange unless separately qualified and coded for each.

Numbers of welders required – Depending upon the number of topsides units that may be involved in a contract, or their complexities, or range of materials involved, or where spool prefabrication is to be carried out, numbers of pipe welders in an offshore yard could be anywhere between 3 and 300, or more. In normal circumstances, carbon steel can be expected to make up the bulk of the piping.

As an indication, the MSF contract in Durban, which contained approx 11,000 metres of mostly carbon steel piping in the full range of sizes, involved +/- 350 man-months of welding over a 15 month period in shop and field, peaking at +/- 30 personnel towards the end of the assembly period.

Availability in South Africa – Welders required for piping integral to oil or gas offshore platforms would be no different to those who work onshore for operators and contractors in the refineries and chemical plants around South Africa, on maintenance, shutdowns, or new constructions.

Peaks & troughs in the petrochem construction industry over the past 40 years have prevented the establishment of a stable welding force and at times, welders have had to be imported from overseas, particularly the more specialised categories. However, a base resource of all categories exists in the main centres, such as Durban, Sasolburg and Secunda, and training programs set up by major contractors for their various projects, have increased those resources to the point where SA welders are working on assignments elsewhere in Africa.

It is impossible to predict whether there would be sufficient resources of coded welders available for an offshore fabrication contract. Unless the country were in the middle of a major industrial boom, a nucleus of pipe welders could be sourced almost immediately and possibly all requirements could be built up long term, depending of course on the yard’s location.

Other trades

Other trades fall into two categories, namely

·  structures and

·  topsides, with some commonality between the two.

Structures

Apart from welders, trades most likely to be used on structures are machine operators (shop), platers/boilermakers (shop & field) and riggers (mainly field). Numbers required will be small compared to other trades and likely to be sourced (excepting the riggers), without too much trouble, from within South Africa.

Riggers experienced in handling heavy and difficult lifts, on the other hand, such as might be involved with a major structure roll up, using one or more cranes in the range 150-500t capacity, could be in short supply. Consequently, the most likely scenario would be to have a permanent nucleus of local riggers for the simple and regular lifts, and hire in specialists, or get assistance from the partner for the special and intermittent major lifts, at least during the formative months after yard start up.

As assembly and construction is done on large structures, working platforms must be created at height. The working platforms range from ground level up to approximately 80 metres. This requires experienced scaffolders to erect these temporary structures that will make the work-face available to the construction team.

Topsides

Trades required for topsides contracts, other than pipe and non-structural steel welders, will be secondary steel erectors & riggers, boilermakers/pipe fabricators, mechanical fitters/millwrights, pipefitters, electricians, instrument technicians, and semi-skilled personnel such as architectural finishers, insulators, & painters.

Drawing on the petro-chem industry in South Africa, sourcing of steel trades, basic riggers, mechanical fitters, and electricians, in reasonable numbers should not be a problem, unless, as mentioned in previous instances, an unprecedented boom were to occur in parallel with obtaining a major offshore fabrication contract. Semi skilled operatives could be trained.

Good piping fabricators/erectors could be a problem, however, if required in large numbers, the situation over the past 40 years having been similar to that of pipe welders. As an indication, the MSF contract consumed in excess of 900 pipe fabricator/fitter manmonths over an18 month period, peaking at +/- 160 people late in the program. A major module assembly contract could absorb 3 times that number, putting a severe strain on industry resources.

As in the past on other projects, however, in South Africa and elsewhere, shortages of piping personnel could be offset by training up numbers of people in semi-skilled repetitive tasks, utilising experienced people as crew leaders/supervisors.

Instrumentation and process control technicians could also be a problem, but in relatively small numbers, due of course to an ever-increasing use of electronics. Such a problem would only arise where the contract involved a major processing platform, with several modules, control room in which case no amount of training would be a solution and people would just have to be sourced overseas.

As for Structures, scaffolders will be required for topside construction. The working platforms will range from ground level to about 25 metres.

Locating the Resources

Given that the intention is to establish a fully fledged offshore capability on the Western Cape coastline, manpower resources would have to be found from two areas of industry, namely heavy manufacturing and construction.

Heavy Manufacturing

If the new yard is to produce major offshore steel structures, much will depend upon the establishment of workshops and fabrication equipment on site, similar to those used at Dorbyl Heavy Engineering and Dorbyl Shipbuilders for the Mossgas Project. Although in small numbers, operatives for such equipment will have to be found and the most likely places to find them will be in towns or cities close to South Africa’s main manufacturing centres. Obvious locations for recruitment will be the Vaal Triangle, Johannesburg/Pretoria, Newcastle, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. Suffice to say, equipment required for platework is not highly sophisticated to operate and recruiting the right people should not be difficult.

Construction

Mention has been made previously that the types of people needed to assemble structures, modules etc for offshore projects, are mostly the same types who are accustomed to constructing, maintaining, or modifying, oil & gas/chemical plants onshore. Traditionally most of such people tend to live near the main centres of these industries, which in the South African scene are Sasolburg, Secunda, & Durban. To a lesser extent, such trades can also be sourced (obviously) from Johannesburg, Cape Town and Richards Bay, and in decreasing numbers from areas around provincial towns such as Port Elizabeth, Saldanha, Mossel Bay, East London, & Newcastle.


Skills Training

Training is essential but the circumstances on the location of the fabrication and construction yard will dictate the level of training required:

·  in all trades if the yard is to be established at a location remote from the main industrial centres, but close to a densely populated rural area, or