Personnel are now being recruited to fill the first 40 permanent jobs in Statoil’s Snøhvit operations organisation, with the full workforce due to be in place by 2005.
Operating the gas liquefaction plant and other facilities at Melkøya outside Hammerfest in northern Norway will require about 175 permanent employees.
Of these, 120 will be chemical, process and automation technicians, electricians and industrial mechanics. A further 25 people are required for offshore-related operations.
The final 30 jobs involve key administrative staff, discipline leaders and other experienced operations personnel, reports Snøhvit personnel manager Grete Varhaug.
“We’re now going to appoint 40 people who're due to be in place by the end of the year,” she explains. “The remainder will be hired in 2004.
“Operations personnel will follow development of the Barents Sea field and the Melkøya facility, and the established qualification programme ahead of the start to production.”
The staff build-up will also parallel the handover process at the land plant, so that the organisation is in place, trained and ready to start operation when the plant is completed in late 2005.
Statoil’s aim is to recruit as many employees as possible from the local area and the rest of northern Norway, Ms Varhaug explains.
This will provide the greatest continuity in the workforce and thereby help to achieve good operating results.
Both young newly-qualified personnel and experienced technicians are required. Statoil is also hoping that a large number of well-qualified people will apply for the engineer jobs.
The Snøhvit project embraces Europe’s first full-scale production and export facility for liquefied natural gas (LNG).
It also ranks as Norway’s first complete field development without offshore surface installations. Production is due to start in 2006.