Alcatel-Lucent to build comms system for $29b Wheatstone LNG project

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 11 January 2012 13:42

IT Industry - Deals

Alcatel-Lucent has been awarded a contract by global engineering firm Bechtel to build a communications network for the facility being build by Chevron in Western Australia to process gas from its offshore Wheatstone field.

At $29b for both the offshore elements of the program (platforms and pipelines) and the onshore facilities, Wheatstone is the largest infrastructure project in Australia, after the National Broadband Network. The onshore facility at Ashburton North, almost 1400kms north of Perth, will have a workforce of up to 4650 people at the peak of construction, ten times the population of the nearest town, Onslow.

Alcatel-Lucent will design, integrate and deliver a complete communications, security and entertainment system, including broadband Internet and TV for the living areas. The system will include an IP phone system for businesses, a broadcast system for fast emergency notification to the workforce and people in the surrounding area, satellite communications, structured cabling, videoconferencing, radio systems and communications tower, uninterruptible power backup, CCTV, access control and (physical) intrusion detection systems.

The project is the largest of its type undertaken by Alcatel-Lucent globally and follows a decision taken by the company locally two years ago to focus on the non-telco sector communications infrastructure market. It is the company's second project of its type in Australia. In 2008 it completed a similar installation for ConocoPhillips' LNG plant in Darwin.

Sean O'Halloran, Alcatel-Lucent Australia president and managing director said: "Like so many parts of the economy, communications networks are increasingly critical to the operation, efficiency and productivity of resources and energy providers. The difference is that with projects like Wheatstone, the scale, remote location and specific project requirements add substantial degrees of complexity to design and deployment'¦We set a clear strategic goal to target new markets like oil and gas, and it's great to that experience translating into such a significant project at Wheatstone."

The Wheatstone contract also puts Alcatel-Lucent in the box seat to win a number of similar projects coming up in Australia, in particular Santos' Gladstone coal seam gas plant in Queensland and Shell's Prelude offshore gas project.