Qatar rail jobs represent great opportunities for Australian engineers

The first contracts for one of the largest engineering jobs in Qatar in recent years were awarded this week and the news is a reminder to Australian engineers that rail projects in Qatar will deliver a great many engineering job opportunities.

In all US$36bn of contracts will be awarded as Qatar seeks to transform its rail infrastructure in the run up to the FIFA World Cup in 2022.

Egis Rail and Jacobs are among the early winners, taking the project management and engineering contracts for the red and gold lines. Hill will manage the third green line.

Leighton, who have the contract to build a battery operated tram system to move students around Doha Education city, are hopeful that this role will open up opportunities on the main Doha Metro.

Elsewhere in Qatar, Lusail City’s light-rail transit system is expected to be finished in August 2016

Rail forms a key element of a massive expansion in Qatar. Construction activity involves four central projects: those planned for the World Cup; the $11bn Doha Airport (in two sections from 2012 to 2015.) Thirdly, $8bn Doha Port, to be completed in 2016 for phase one, with total completion in 2030.

All this is in addition to the $25bn of rail expenditure.

Across the GCC region, rail projects are plentiful. In Saudi, Construction has begun on the first high speed passenger line between Makkah and Madinah which is expected to be complete by January 2014. New railway and expansion rail jobs currently in process in the kingdom include North-South Rail, the Land-bridge Project (between Riyadh and Jeddah), and the GCC Railway, which is set to connect the six GCC members - Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia, and Oman.

75% of Qatar’s revenues for this investment  come from it’s oil and gas sales, bolstered of late by increases in LNG exports, the revenues of which will leave the country with a comfortable budget surplus, regardless of their plans for all of this additional sustained expenditure.

All of this paints a fairly clear picture: if you’re thinking of an expat life style but you had ruled out the Middle East (based on perceptions of what it would be like to work in the region) you should take another look at Qatar.

Qatar plays host to large numbers of Commonwealth expats; and growing numbers of foreigners are working in Qatar to save money in the tax-free environment, and maintain a standard of living and wealth comparable to home. The kicker? Qatar has the highest per capita income in the world.

What’s not to like?


See immediate open Qatar Rail jobs.

No end in sight for Australian LNG jobs as US check book remains on the table

We get a lot of questions about the future of LNG for Australian engineering jobs. And I do mean a lot. Few things seem to occupy the minds of our industry colleagues across the world as much as the potential that LNG projects represent for the Australian economy and for the immediate future of global engineering jobs. Not since the 2003 spike in inquiries provoked by the Iraq reconstruction project, or the mass interest in building jobs for the London Olympics have I seen this much interest on one area of the global industry.

For now, Australia is at the centre of the engineering world. And it is foreign investment from the USA that is really driving the expansion, with relatively little of the money coming from China. 

Fred Hochberg, Chairman of US Ex-Im bank and a close economic advisor to President Obama has been in Australia this week to enforce the US’s commitment to sustained investment in the region, in the face of renewed efforts from China to lead spending over here.

"US investment is frankly far greater than any Chinese investment in Australia - it's the No 1 source of FDI (foreign direct investment) into Australia," said Hochberg while visiting Australia Pacific LNG on Curtis Island.

So America’s message is clear – We want you to know we care about you. Low interest loan money currently flooding in from the US is a clear signal that the US sees Australia as a safe bet for the long term. Investments from Ex-Im have been welcomed far more readily here than those coming in from China. The low interest loan money is linked to projects with heavy involvement from US companies like Bechtel and GE, so it’s a popular strategy within the US.

Cumulative US investment topped $550bn in Australia over the last seven years, compared with just $21b from China, Chevron's decision to push forward with its gigantic Gorgon and Wheatstone projects in Western Australia is a significant driver of this investment.

To justify this level of expenditure, we have to supply the human capital to get the jobs done. Where are the skilled labor jobs and engineering jobs going to be filled from?

The reality is that just as the investment money is coming from the US, a lot of the skills we need will have to come from outside too. If we handle it right, it will be good for us in the long term. 

We need to bring in resources from outside Australia to execute projects now and to help train and develop the next generation of Australian engineers who can fill engineering jobs in LNG for the next decade. The time is now. 

High Demand and Low Supply leaves only Four Options for the Australia Job Market

It’s nice to be the centre of attention when the news is good. Australia is leading the world in job growth. Payrolls rose by just over 46,000 last month, the most since November 2010, compared with a median estimate for an increase of 10,000 in a recent Bloomberg News survey.

Full time jobs are up 12,300 in January, and part-time employment jumped 34,000. Overall participation rates – showing the number of eligible workers in gainful employment – also rose.

This growth is being driven by demand minerals and natural resources from the world’s two fastest growing economies – India and China who between them house a third of the world’s population. Bloomberg also reports that Oil & Gas salaries are up 17% to an average of $165,000 as the various developers fight to staff the eight major LNG ventures currently under construction. 

Australia now has to face the secondary challenge – filling these jobs with relevantly skilled people. Urgent vacancies and unemployed workers do not merge seamlessly to form a perfect whole. That’s not how the job market works.

We need sources of relevant workers, mostly in the engineering and technical sector - where most of these jobs came from and where most of the empty vacancies are building up.

Logically, there are four things that can happen:

1. Australian engineering jobs can be done in Australia by local workforces
2. Work can be shipped out of Australia
3. People can be shipped into Australia
4. The work can be left undone

As the world turns its eyes to Australia’s recent job market growth, we should focus our own energies on making sure the talent we need is available so that the demand is met with supply.

There is no quick fix, but there are things we have to do to build a stronger base for the future. Demand will remain high for a long time and that means opportunity for those leaving school right now to choose careers in engineering.

We also need to focus on training so that we can keep the necessary foreign skills that come into the country here, once overseas temporary workers are gone.

Right now, it’s time to bring the right people in to capitalize on the overall opportunity the growth offers.




Trevor Burne is Managing Director of Talascend. He blogs about Australian engineering jobs, and issues affecting Australian Engineers.