Meals, Quarters For 8,200 Needed At Peak In LNG Project

Clothes line in the Ras Laffan camp also provides means to dry fish, big and small, which are hanging at the end of the line. A typical dormitory building with ubiquitous air conditioners is visible in background (Fig. 2).

• Scenes from one of the spotless kitchens at the Ras Laffan camp hint at the amount of food that must be served. Rice is being cooked in the rice cooker in the this picture. [11,563 bytes]]
• Each of the three strainers shown holds some 90 lb or 40 kg of cooked rice. [9,351 bytes]
• The cook is preparing a dish called "masala." The recipe begins: "Take 55 lb of minced mutton, add 1 lb of garlic, 1 lb ginger, 9 lb tomatoes, and 18 lb onions, plus eggs, corieander leaves and powder, chili greens and powder, tumeric powder, and curry powder. [11,463 bytes]

It has everything a real town has except women, children, schools, bars, and old people. It is the huge "camp" built at Ras Laffan, Qatar, on the shores of the Persian Gulf to lodge and feed over 5,000 workers as they build the first plant in the emirate for liquefying millions of tons of natural gas yearly.

Japan's Chiyoda Corp. is the top contractor for the Qatar Liquefied Gas Co. (QatarGas) project, which is owned by a Qatari, French, American, and Japanese consortium.

As part of the plant construction contract, Chiyoda built the camp, which Teyseer Services Co., the Qatar affiliate of the French company, Sodexho Alliance, now runs and maintains. Sodexho is the world's largest catering/remote site management organization. It has had all its expertise in those fields put to the test for nearly 4 years supporting this world-scale LNG project which will be completed this summer.

Characteristic of such projects along the thinly populated western shore of the gulf is the lack of skilled and unskilled indigenous workers. Thousands must be brought in, primarily from Southeast Asia, for periods ranging from months to years. Big projects aren't new to the region, but the layout, organization, and operation of the Ras Laffan accommodations camp is unique. It could serve as a model for others contemplating big projects on the gulf, or in other regions.

As Fig. 1 [246,666 bytes] shows, building a new "town" from the ground up requires almost as much planning, design, and engineering as the nearby liquefied natural gas (LNG) trains that are taking the temperature of gas down to a frigid -160° C. or -258° F. to liquefy it for shipment to Japan.

Check list for setting up, running accommodations camp

• Design installation services
• Design kitchens, procure and install equipment
• Design laundries, procure and install equipment
• Procure small equipment for kitchens/restaurants
• Procure soft furnishings (sheets, pillow cases etc.)

Services (man-day basis)

• Catering
• Housekeeping/janitorail
• Laundry

Services (monthly lump-sum basis)

• Camp recreation
• Camp general outside cleaning
• Camp general pest control
• Camp garbage collection, disposal
• Camp and hob site security
• Fire fighting
• Medical
• Landscaping/gardening
• Staff rental to companies or to customers
• "Tea Boy" service in camp or job site offices
• Commissaries, minimarkets or supermarkets

Maintenance

• Utilities
• Accommodation camp (carpentry, plumbing, painting, electrical, masonry/plastering, etc.

Accommodations

"Camp" seems too ordinary a word for the complex and critical piece of infrastructure constructed in a barren and hostile environment. In 1991, there was nothing at Ras Laffan-no villages, water, electricity, or roads.

Pierre Revillon d'Apreval, general manager of Teyseer Services Co., says he first found the site 80 km or 50 miles north of the capital of Doha by heading his auto, with some trepidation, over the desert towards clouds of dust raised by surveyors. They were laying out the port, which was the first step in this historic project.

Sodexho had at the time over 20 years' experience in remote site management for Middle East projects and had its regional headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

When Qatar's state-owned Qatar General Petroleum Co. announced that the world's largest gas field, its offshore North field, would be tapped to feed a major $4 billion LNG plant, Sodexho went after the site management contract.

Sodexho wanted to not only sell itself but also its concept: one company to provide all services in a single camp. It was not out of the question that several management companies would be selected to operate separate camps.

The engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor would make the decision about the camp and its operation. Even before this most important company had been chosen, Sodexho sent its representative from Damman, Saudi Arabia, to Houston to propose the idea to M.W. Kellogg Co. Kellogg had been engaged to set out the engineering specifications for the entire project.

Kellogg accepted the idea that the remoteness of the site would make it difficult for one or more companies to manage separate camps. It therefore called for a single camp to be built by the contractor who won the LNG contract. Chiyoda Corp. was awarded the EPC contract. It then had to be sold on the idea of a single camp operator. It could have structured the operation different ways, parceling out the job to several companies in the single camp or requiring subcontractors to arrange for their own catering, housekeeping, etc.

Chiyoda had to take a close look at the plan because it would be faced with accommodating large contingents from numerous subcontractors in a single camp and keeping the costs, like meals, related to each of them separate. After Sodexho was short-listed for the contract, it took two trips by Sodexho to Chiyoda's headquarters in Yokohama to finally convince the construction company of the synergy and competency that a single operator could bring to the operation.

Chiyoda's hesitancy about not being able to differentiate between all the subcontractor personnel for cost allocation was overcome with a bar-code card system. Everyone in the camp would be given a card at check in identifying the card carrier's company, his nationality, and the level of accommodation and food service he would get.

This card, when swiped by a worker though a counter at a camp restaurant, would provide cost records. Cards would be used in other ways, permitting, for example, access to restricted areas.

Sodexho made its case and got the contract, which when completed will have run 49 months. The accompanying box (p. 44) lists the services Sodexho's affiliate, Teyseer Services Co., is providing.

Chiyoda built the camp to house 5,200 men and later added a temporary adjacent camp for an additional 3,000 when the construction force peaked. This happened when work began on a third LNG train while the first two were still under construction.

As the box shows, Sodexho had an important function in this early step. The company designed the all-important kitchens and laundries, procured the equipment for them, and bought small kitchen and restaurant items, like knives and forks, all for around $2 million.

Following is a closer look at the more important functions of running such a camp.

Camp reception

The important ID card is produced and issued during camp reception. Here the rooms are allocated. As usual, the bosses get a better deal. There are three levels of accommodations in the camp. Actually, there are four if the few small, individual houses or "villas" with a carport are included. The Chiyoda project manager, his senior staff, and the highest seniors representing the client, QatarGas, live there.

Accommodations vary for categories of personnel designated as seniors, juniors, and workers. The senior category includes managers, executives, and department heads. They get a single room with private bath, small refrigerator, desk, and bed.

The "mayor" of the Ras Laffan camp, Bent Krogh, Teyseer's Danish site manager, lives in a standard senior room.

Juniors are the next level down. They are staff with a variety of specific responsibilities. Two share a room and also use a common bathroom at the end of the corridor.

The workers sleep in dormitories with 20 upper and lower bunks. They utilize "ablution blocks" with showers, toilets, and basins large enough to hand-wash clothes. Because summer temperatures are sometimes in the 120° F. (about 50° C.). range, wall-mounted air conditioners are everywhere.

Fig. 2 [7,728 bytes] shows the outside of a dormitory. The workers have access to recreation rooms, television, sport fields, and outdoor movies. Films with dialog from a number of languages are shown on various nights. Options are English, Hindi, Pakistani Urdu, Fillipino Tagalog, and South Indian Tamil and Malyalam.

Catering

The food service at the Ras Laffan camp is mind boggling in its complexity. At peak construction, Revillon says Teyseer served 8,250 persons per day, breakfast, lunch, and supper. This totals nearly 25,000 meals daily.

In the course of this 4-year contract, he estimates 14.3 million meals will have been served to workers. The meals are prepared in nine kitchens and served in 14 restaurants. During the peak period, two temporary kitchens and four mess halls were added.

Because the majority of the workers are Asian, rice is consumed by the truckload, some 17,000 lb of dry rice daily during the peak time. Fig. 3 [11,563 bytes] shows rice being cooked. The rice strainers on the floor indicate the volume required.

Another important carbohydrate is Asian chappati bread. Teyseer mixes the dough and bakes this round, flat bread in the camp. The special mixing machine is "shuddering day and night for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Akram Itani, Teyseer's commercial manager, says. A Canadian who writes and speaks fluent English, French, and Arabic, Itani explains why ethnic foods are so important.

"It is a critical element in project productivity," he says.

"First there is a culture shock when a foreign worker is placed in an alien environment. 'Home cooking' helps overcome the shock. Then there are religious restrictions that must be considered.

"Finally," he says, "the body reacts to foods and spices it is acquainted with. It cannot function well without them."

A complex central store and warehousing operation keeps the meats, vegetables, spices, and other ingredients moving. Chief cooks write out each day the items and amount they need for each meal the next day. The central store then prepares pallets to go to the kitchens.

Fig. 4 [131,967 bytes] is a recipe card for one mutton dish, Roghan Josh, to feed 100 Indian and Pakistani (Indo/Pak) workers. The dish requires 18 kg, or 39 lb, of mutton and over a pound of garlic. This recipe is typical of the good, hearty grub that even the lowest-ranked workers get.

The costs shown are in Qatari currency. Revillon declined to give, for publication, the per man per day cost for the food. He said the rates are very site-specific and could be misleading. A reason is that food stuff costs can vary greatly from region to region. For example, fresh vegetables cost more in Alaska, less in the Congo. The opposite would hold true for frozen foods.

Menus of the workers are constantly rotated to keep them happy. Revillon says in a hotel restaurant the same dishes can be served several days in a row because the turnover is on the guest or client side. But in industrial catering the turnover has to be on the menu side because the clients are assigned to the site for a long duration.

As a result of this, and the ethnic diversity of the workforce (52 nationalities), Revillon says Teyseer will have used 1,800 recipes during the project. All are on record and could perhaps make the world's largest cook book.

There is, of course, not a kitchen for each nationality. North Americans and Europeans eat from one "western" or "continental" kitchen.

For example both Americans and Italians eat lasagna when it is on the menu, but the Brits may not go for that, Revillon says. They love kidney pie. So on the lasagna day the cook may also offer that. It does not tempt the Italians though, Revillon says.

Fig. 5 [131,538 bytes]shows a few days of the weekly menu for "western" seniors. Menus are set up with 4 week cycles. As with the room accommodations, seniors get a better deal than juniors and workers. One difference, as the menu shows, is that the seniors get to choose daily between two entrees at lunch and dinner. There is no difference in quality, just more choice and perhaps sophistication.

There is, of course, a Japanese kitchen with a cook from Osaka who prepares elaborate Japanese dishes (see Journally Speaking this issue). There are also kitchens for Arabic, Thai, Phillipino, and Indonesian workers and seniors. Food for Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, and Nepalese workers and seniors is prepared in a combined kitchen. Regional specialties of each country are inserted regularly to keep all pleased. Vegetarian and nonvegetarian menus are offered to this group each day.

This remarkable operation is headed by a colorful French catering manager, Bernard Rottreau. He is a globetrotter and has worked on offshore rigs, on land in many parts of West Africa, and at eight different camps in Saudi Arabia.

Rottreau runs the Ras Laffan food operation with a staff of 250 and personally finds and recruits the cooks who often come from leading hotel kitchens.

The result is that Rottreau, with his encyclopedic knowledge of food and restaurants, has created at this barren, often torrid spot on the Persian Gulf, a variety of excellent vegetarian and nonvegetarian restaurants that would be difficult to find in any but the largest North American and European cities.

Revillon points out that though the food must be easy to prepare, nourishing, and appealing to the workers, the cost of the meal, or the man-day rate, is what the contractors look at closely.

"Just as in any restaurant," he says, "if you want lobster you have to pay for lobster."

No lines

With 8,000 coming to lunch, the big question is how do you feed them and still keep project construction moving? Construction did not stop during meal time.

As mentioned earlier, Teyseer had 11 kitchens cooking and 18 dining halls open during this peak period. Each restaurant or mess hall has two rooms, one to the right, one to the left of the central kitchen. Each room could seat 500 persons, so 1,000 could be fed during one shift. Some dining rooms were smaller.

It is 6 km from the project construction site to the camp, and the workers and staff were bussed in. There was one eating shift for seniors, two for juniors, and a rolling system of continuous flow of workers from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Lines, if any, were short.

Up to 750 packed lunches and 600 dinners were delivered to the site during crucial construction operations, such as concrete pouring.

Breakfast was served over a 11/2-hr period. Because some subcontractors started work earlier than others. it was possible to serve the workers on a flow, not a mass, basis.

A problem

Early in the project, the feeding operation did have a flaw. Revillon said for several months fewer people were eating than were sleeping in the camp. In one case a subcontractor had 362 employees with room accommodations but a look at the eating registration record showed that only 250 were getting breakfast, 280 lunch and 270 dinner.

Because of the small profit margin on meals. Teyseer was going in the hole. Because there was absolutely no other place for the workers to eat, and all the food was being eaten, it was obvious that some were simply not swiping their cards at the entrance. Monitoring would have created jams in the messhalls.

Teyseer proposed to Chiyoda that they charge on the basis that 97.5% of the people sleeping in the camp were eating in the restaurants. This factor was based on experience, with some workers away in Doha, or ill, or gone during the day for any number of reasons. Chiyoda accepted this rationale and that became the basis of food charges.

Water and fuel

Water at the site is as important as food. It is supplied by two seawater desalination plants that produce 634,080 gal/day. However, Teyseer is prepared to truck in sweet water from elsewhere when the desalination plants are taken down for maintenance. The camp does have a large swimming pool for use by senior staff.

Another amenity is a nine hole golf course which is watered frequently with treated waste water. This water, which is safe and treated to a level far above World Health Organization standards, was destined for disposal in the sea. In fact, a pipeline had been laid for this. However, influential Qataris with houses on the coast objected to this treated effluent going into the sea and killed that alternative. As a result Chiyoda built the golf course which is watered with the treated waste water.

The camp, of course, needs electricity for pumping sea water, air conditioning, and a variety of other activities. The electricity is supplied by eight series 3608 Caterpillar generators. They produce 3,000 kv each and burn about 1,400 gal of diesel daily. It's brought in by tank trucks. Over 1,200 deliveries have been made to date.

There is little doubt that the temporary Ras Laffan camp will live on for years in family lore as its hard-working "citizens" return to their villages and towns in Asia.

Expatriates important in Qatar

Estimates of the number of persons in Qatar range from 500,000 to almost 700,000. The influx of western and third-country workers keeps the number fluid to a degree. Work permits are closely controlled. Of the total, only about 100,000 are Qataris. The emirate is definitely a magnet for third-world workers as the accompanying article about catering and site management for the Ras Laffan projects reveals. The largest groups of foreign workers come from India, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The emirate definitely needs them to help run its modern infrastructure and construction.

There is also a sizable group of more-affluent expatriates from North America, Europe, and Japan. They are generally engineers, managers, and specialists. In spite of blazing summer temperatures, many find Qatar an attractive place to work. The infrastructure is continuously being expanded. Good medical service and housing is available. Experienced expatriates who have worked in many places around the oil world, give Qatar high marks. There is no corruption and little, if any, crime.

During the cooler months, Qatar is like a resort with fine beaches and clear water. There are also good opportunities for scuba diving and deep sea fishing.

Drilling crews

Most senior positions on offshore rigs are filled by North Americans and Europeans. The parent companies for most of the drilling rigs operating in Qatar are headquartered in Europe and North America.

Junior workers, such as roughnecks, are third-country nationals. The larger drilling companies have employment offices or agents in Egypt, the Philippines, Thailand, and India to recruit skilled labor. India and Egypt are good sources because they have fairly long histories of oil activity.

There can be up to six different nationalities working on some offshore rigs. This mixing avoids a shutdown should a problem arise, for example, in obtaining visas.

Seniors work for 28 days on, 28 days off. Junior employees work 56 days on, 28 days off. Some, but not all, of the seniors reside in Qatar and get paid trips to their homeland each year. The remainder and the juniors are flown to their homeland on their days off.

There are major financial advantages for foreign companies to hire local or third-country nationals for jobs in the Gulf.

Copyright 1998 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.