PNG: "We now have a real project"
Mission improbable
Upstream, May 4
Many industry veterans were take aback when Chevron bought the intellectual property rights to the Papua New Guinea Gas project from Canada's International Petroleum Corporation in October 1996 -- not the least surprised were future project leader John Powell and others at the US major.
After all, Chevron was embarking on one of the world's most improbable pipeline developments, one that required the support of two national governments, one state government, three provincial governments, 38 regional and local governments, 26 landowner groups and 17 island tribes, not to mention sceptical customers and financiers.
Chevron's original plan called for the transport of at least 80 petajoules of baseload sales gas a year, starting in 2001, from its onshore Kutubu oilfield and surrounding prospects. It would be delivered to Queensland via a 1900-kilometre pipeline.
Shortly after the project was unveiled, Chevron executives in Perth were dreading their possible involvement. One said: "Now that we have bought this silly pipeline project, some poor bastard is gonna have to run it."
Two months later, the man who made that remark, John Powell, received a call from Chevron congratulating him on his new appointment as PNG Gas project director. "We weren't true believers back then," says Powell, a Chevron employee of 14 years. "I had very little faith that this could work."
Powell moved to Brisbane in March 1997 to start laying the ground for PNG Gas. "In Queensland, gas only made up 5% of the total energy supply. In Western Australia it was 46% but in the early 1980s Western Australia was also at 5%," says Powell, who had worked for six years with the North West Shelf Venture -- another "improbable" project in the early 1980s.
In May 1997, Chevron signed a study agreement with Comalco Aluminium to co-operate on a new alumina refinery in Gladstone, Queensland, to be fuelled by PNG gas.
Within 18 months, Chevron had secured the support of various governments and tribes, obtained environmental approvals for a good portion of the now 3200-kilometre pipeline route stretching all the way to Brisbane and appointed a build-own-operate contractor. Only buyers and bankers have yet to commit. "From a concept with a 5% probability of success we now have a real project," says Powell.
The toughest thing to do along the way was lay off staff, says Powell. The project team of 50 in January 1998 fell to 15 in April that year, rose to 120 in late 2000 and is currently hovering at 40. "These are people who were committed to the project. Telling them that they no longer had a job with the team was the most difficult thing I had to do in my life," says Powell, who was himself relieved of his duties by PNG Gas' new operator ExxonMobil last month. He will shortly quit Chevron for a long holiday.
One of Powell's leadership traits is an ability to relate to his employees. "I'm only as good as the people who work for me. Everyone is part of the decision-making process," says Powell. "During our Monday morning meetings, everybody had a say, even the receptionist."
The most demanding -- and also the most rewarding -- part of Powell's PNG Gas duties was communicating with every project stakeholder, including employees, politicians, indigenous people, contractors, bankers, customers and journalists, he says.
Of the relationships Powell has forged through the project, he cherishes his ties with the Aboriginal people most of all -- this, coming from a man whose first real conversation with an Aborigine was barely four years ago.
"My parents had certain conservative views about the Aboriginal community," says Powell. "Some of that was passed on to me."
However, Powell changed that attitude after his first meeting with Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson at a coffee house in Brisbane in May 1997. "The meeting was very cordial, very open and very respectful," says Powell. "We didn't take long to find a middle ground."
A few months later, Chevron signed an unprecedented land access agreement with more than 20 Aboriginal groups from Cape York to Gladstone.
Pearson speaks fondly of his "blood brother" Powell. "I had never found an Australian executive who approached indigenous people with respect," Pearson once said. "John Powell is the first executive who would deal with Aboriginal people as holders of Native Title. Other mining company executives still think Aboriginal people are invisible."
To that, Powell responds: "There is a level of trust that needs to be established. To the Aborigines, it's all about trusting a white man. To me, it's about looking someone in the eye and telling the truth."
After devoting four intense years to PNG Gas, Powell is sad to go. "The PNG Gas project is the most exciting project I'm ever going to work on," he says -- at least until someone else finds another silly pipeline project requiring the services of some poor bastard. |
