Angola LNG: A New Delta Dawning

Flying over the Congo River delta into Soyo, Angola, at dusk, the scene below is quite picturesque, as oil fields go. With scores of gas flares encircling its offshore oil derricks in amber light, the delta is rapidly becoming one of the world’s most visible and active fields for gas development. Within months, though, the flares will begin to flicker, as more and more of their methane fuel, now simply burned off, is put to far better use.

Along the coastline, on a small wedge of land angling into the surf, five giant tanks are part of a new liquefaction facility Bechtel has been building. The tanks will soon fill with propane, butane, condensates, and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The LNG is made from previously stranded methane that can now be brought ashore from the derricks and cooled for easy transport to energy-hungry ports worldwide.

Bechtel built the 5.2-million-metric-ton-per-year LNG train, the tanks, and the supporting facilities under a four-year lump-sum contract with Angola LNG Limited, a consortium of Sonangol, Chevron, BP, Total, and ENI. The plant’s remote location and limited infrastructure has made this one of Bechtel’s most challenging recent projects.

Ship to shore

Far from major manufacturing and fabrication centers in China, India, and elsewhere, the project required importing vast quantities of materials and equipment—more than 1 million tons in total. For that reason, one of Bechtel’s first tasks in 2007, when the lump-sum contract was awarded, was to work with local authorities to expand Soyo’s port. Meanwhile, the customer raised and stabilized the wedge of swampland with 7 million cubic yards of fill so that local deliveries could be completed and construction could begin.

For that, the project team hired approximately 8,300 local workers  over the course of the project—4,500 of them on a sustained basis—few with certified building experience, and provided them with more than 200,000 hours of training. In addition to acquainting workers with the project’s high quality and safety standards, Bechtel’s training leaves them well prepared to fill operations roles on the plant itself, and for work on future oil and gas projects in the delta.

To house and feed 6,500 of the non-local workers, Bechtel’s contract also covered building and maintaining a large construction camp equipped with recreational facilities and communications equipment to help workers stay in touch with their families abroad.

Lasting impressions

Although much of the food, clothing, and other supplies for the camp and workers passed through the expanded port, Bechtel contracted with a variety of local companies for services that ranged from growing fresh vegetables to simple repairs to mosquito control. The effort has both expanded existing businesses and spurred the formation of new ones.

In addition, several Angolan companies worked as subcontractors on the project. They built, among other things, the foundations for the project units and permanent buildings, and were active partners in the consortium that built the tanks.

Bechtel also developed initiatives to find local sources of camp provisions and certain construction supplies, and supported Angola LNG’s efforts to build broad community relations and environmental protection programs. Bechtel volunteers have renovated and upgraded the Mpinda Catholic Mission, which includes a school, an orphanage, and a maternity clinic. They also recently began work on expanding a primary school at Bairro Fina as a “legacy gift” to the local community.

Despite the project’s complexity and the large number of workers new to construction, workers learned recently that they had earned Bechtel’s ES&H (Environmental Safety & Health) Project of the Year award for 2010, having completed more than 50 million job hours with just four lost-time accidents. Since September 2010, the project has achieved 23 million job hours and more than 16 months without a single lost-time accident.