ESQ is an industry-funded workforce planning organisation that works closely with the operators of the state’s CSG-to-LNG projects.

Earlier this month, ESQ released an operations and maintenance plan, projecting workforce needs for the industry for the next two decades.

The report is based on the assumption that a minimum of 39,000 wells will be required for the six LNG trains currently under construction by APLNG, QCLNG and GLNG.

The report also maps out middle and high-case scenarios where 45,000 and 59,000 wells respectively would be needed.

The report does not state whether this is an increase on current plans, but the figure is much higher than the planned number of CSG wells announced by project operators.

APLNG is planning 5,000 wells for its first two trains, while QCLNG and GLNG have announced plans to drill about 6,000 wells each.

ESQ is also projecting a doubling of employment by the CSG-to-LNG industry, compared to its initial report in 2009.

The total workforce is now projected to peak at 14,900 jobs by 2024 in ESQ’s mid-range scenario of 45,000 wells. This is almost double the peak of 7,500 in the previous report.

“The increase is created by a greater understanding of the required contracting workforce, as well as an increase in the number of wells expected to obtain the volume of gas required,” the report states.

The ESQ plan follows statements a fortnight ago by a Houston-based drilling company, Superior Energy Services.

The company’s Asia-Pacific head, Ruud Boendermaker, was quoted by The Australian as saying production from CSG wells had not met expectations, and “a lot more wells” would need to be drilled over the next few years.

The CSG-to-LNG project operators were quick to reject those claims.

Contacted yesterday about the ESQ report, the project operators had mixed responses.

QCLNG said there was no change to the plan for 6000 wells.

A spokesman for Origin said APLNG’s environmental impact statement was approved for a planned 10,000 wells for four trains, with two under development.

“APLNG’s current plan is to drill 1100 wells as part of phase 1 activity. We have not yet disclosed firm plans for the number of wells to be drilled beyond that timeframe.”

Santos was unable to provide a comment by time of publication.

Senior oil and gas analyst at Ord Minnett, John Young, said it was possible the increase in well numbers reflected a longer project life than planned, and a slightly larger project size.

“It could be due to a number of factors, not necessarily poor performance. There’s a wide range of performance from these wells, and I expect that the best wells will be developed first, and that wells developed later in life will not have the same productivity, as activity moves away from the ‘sweet spots’.”

Graeme Bethune, chief executive of energy industry consultancy EnergyQuest, said that while the increase in wells numbers was not good for project returns, it was a much-needed boost to employment.

“One of the major issues facing the new federal government is rising unemployment as investment in LNG and other resources projects peaks.

“Construction of the seven new LNG projects in Australia will be completed by 2017. These projects are currently employing huge numbers of people, with over 6000 workers at Barrow Island on the Gorgon project and over 10,000 on Curtis Island at Gladstone.

“In WA, the shift is to floating LNG, which will mean far fewer onshore jobs in Australia in the construction phase.

“This will be offset in a sense by the growth in employment in Queensland, which will be sustained over a long period of time.”

ESQ chief executive officer, Glenn Porter, said employment numbers in the CSG-to-LNG industry had increased because the operators now had a much better understanding of their workforce needs, compared to 2009.

Porter said employment numbers were driven by a number of critical areas such as drilling, well servicing, well workover and the installation of gas and water gathering.

He said there were not enough drillers to meet demand, particularly now this area of activity was ramping up.

“Electrical instrumentation is another key area. The wells, drill compressors, central compressors and pipelines are all run by control systems, which need electrical instrumentation technicians to install and maintain. That’s a specialised role and there is a shortage of those skills.”

However, he said industry was putting itself in the best position to meet future needs.

“The reason they do all this planning is give yourself a chance of getting the right skills supply. If you plan you will know what you need and when, then you have a better chance of putting something in place to build those skills for the future.

“This is one industry that does have a plan and they are working together collaboratively to implement their plan. They’re working with us and training organisations, unis, TAFEs and government.”

He said ESQ was now working with the project operators and contractors to prepare a workforce development action plan for release in the first quarter of next year.