Workers vote for Bass strait action

OREANDA-NEWS. Unionised workers have voted in favour of taking industrial action at a contractor that maintains ExxonMobil's Australian operations in the Bass strait.

Members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union voted for taking industrial action at the UGL-Kaefer joint venture, which has the maintenance contract for the Bass Strait project's offshore platforms and the Longford and Long Island Point facilities in the state of Victoria. The union has not notified the contractor of any industrial action to date.

ExxonMobil and UK-Australian resources firm BHP Billiton last month said that they plan to invest A\\$400mn (\\$287mn) to replace a crude and condensate pipeline that links their Longford and Long Island Point facilities. These facilities and the associated offshore platforms form the 50:50 Esso-BHP Billiton Gippsland Basin joint venture, which is operated by ExxonMobil.

UGL-Kaefer was granted a seven-year contract to deliver all maintenance on the joint venture's onshore facilities, as well as its 21 offshore platforms and associated pipelines in 2010.

Oil and gas from the offshore Bass Strait project is delivered to Longford, from where it supplies about 20pc of domestic crude demand and 40pc of east coast Australian gas needs. The Long Island Point plant stores crude and processes natural gas liquids.