The Wall Street Journal: Big Gas Projects Face Tight Australia Labor Pool

“Energy companies in Australia have a jobs problem: They are creating too many at once. Companies including Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are spending billions of dollars in the country on mammoth facilities to cool natural gas into liquid form in a bid to supply Asian markets. But the seven projects now under construction, and others planned, must compete for skilled workers to construct the plants in an Australian market already stretched by an expanding mining sector. Analysts say a scarcity of labor threatens to drive up costs and cause delays, jeopardizing the return on investment for backers of the liquified-natural-gas projects . . . . ‘How are eight of these massive projects going to come in on time and on budget?’ said Nick Potter, a consultant for advisory firm Poten & Partners . . . .”