WorleyParsons in joint venture with Foster Wheeler (known as the Foster Wheeler WorleyParsons (Pluto) Joint Venture )(the Joint Venture) hold the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management contract by Woodside Burrup Pty Ltd for the Pluto Liquefied Natural Gas Project’s onshore production plant and associated infrastructure near Karratha in North West Western Australia
The project involves the development of the Pluto and Xena gas fields located offshore (approximately 180 km north-west of Karratha) for export as LNG. The initial phase of the development includes an onshore liquefied natural gas production plant with forecast production of 4.3 million tonnes per annum of LNG.
Since 1 July 2009, unions have been in dispute with the Joint Venture right of entry to hold discussions with employees working on the Pluto project site. On 4 November 2009 the Joint Venture made an application to Fair Work Australia to deal with a dispute relating to right of entry in which it claimed that organisers of the AMWU had behaved improperly on the site while exercising a right of entry and queried how one official from the AMWU could also purport to exercise a right of entry on behalf of two other unions.
Deputy President McCarthy conducted a conciliation conference on 13 November 2009. A further conference listed for 30 November 2009 was cancelled.