TERMINAL DESIGN

Trends in coal terminal design

Aerial of Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal where Aurecon Hatch recently completed the 7X expansion from 55 to 85Mtpa.

In his current role as general manager of the Aurecon Hatch joint venture, Ross Parslow is almost uniquely placed to offer meaningful insights into trends in Australian coal terminal design. In this interview he speaks to ABHR editor Charles Macdonald.

Ross Parslow, general manager, Aurecon Hatch.

urecon Hatch, and its predecessors, has been heavily involved in designing and delivering green fields and brown fields coal terminals across NSW and Queensland for 40 years. Ross forged his career in the 1980s working on Queenslands coal railways, and was part of a team that designed the electrification of the system. He joined BHP Engineering in 1990 and worked on various coal projects, continuing in the same vein under new parent Hatch. He stepped out of the industry for a few years early in the new millennium, returning to assume the general manager role at Aurecon Hatch in 2007. According to Ross, underpinning development trends in coal export terminals is a shift in thinking by coal chain participants from the individual elements of the chains, to a holistic view from pit to port.

The coal industry is recognising the importance of planning their coal export facilities from pit to port and dealing with the whole cost of logistics of the coal export chain, including the mine site, the rail infrastructure and operations and the coal terminal costs, he said. That is driving a much stronger focus on minimizing the whole chain cost and maximizing the whole chain efficiency, more than we saw four or five years ago when there was more emphasis on getting the best solution and deal for each part of the chain independently, but unfortunately sometimes not achieving overall efficiency. The trend to pit to port thinking is manifesting as changes in parameters of coal terminals. Most of the new or expanding terminals are looking to operate on a rail to stock basis; that requires a larger stock yard, but it makes the rail operation more efficient by reducing the variability of demand on train services, explained Ross. Another trend is the conscious planning of coal terminal development to minimize demurrage costs. The demurrage cost in coal export terminals has been very high in recent years; some of that might be due to opportunistic scheduling of vessels, but there are ways to design and manage the terminal, both operationally and commercially, to ensure that the terminal doesnt operate with long ship queues and does operate with low demurrage costs.

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Australian Bulk Handling Review: March/April 2010

TERMINAL DESIGN

Our design of the NCIG terminal is an example of where the parameters of terminal performance were set at the outset to achieve minimum demurrage costs. With the development of huge new inland coal basins the Galilee, Surat and Gunnedah Ross expected larger scale mine developments, more blending at mine sites, and less at terminals. Coal terminals can be used to blend different coals but sophisticated blending adds to the cost of the coal terminal. With the development of very large scale operations of 20 to 30 Mtpa in the new coal basins, this type of exporter is generally not looking for blending in the coal terminal and instead aims to produce blended products at the mine. Their desire is to have the terminal as efficient as possible in getting those blended coals straight through on to the ship at least cost. However, there are other producers who do a lot of blending at existing terminals, so there is a challenge for terminal designers to meet both sets of requirements. The end result can be different terminal stockyard designs; in some cases that may mean hybrid terminals with two different forms of stockyard in the one facility, or it might suggest a commercial solution where one terminal provides a service including blending, while an adjacent terminal provides a different service without blending. Looking to the bigger picture, Aurecon Hatch conducted a master planning exercise in 2007/2008 for the Queensland Government. Amongst other things, it speculated that export demand for Queensland coal in 20 years could reach 400 million tones pa. The company then considered where that demand would originate, and how it could be handled by the three available deep water coal terminal export sites at Abbot Point, Hay Point and Gladstone.

A key part of the strategy for handling that growth, and a task partly achieved through the Goonyella to Abbot Pt (GAP) Project, was linking up the Goonyella and Abbot Point rail systems. This will allow northern Bowen Basin producers access to Abbot Point where there is more latent expansion capacity than at Hay Point. Since that study was completed, the level of interest in developing the Galilee basin has grown enormously and all the Galilee producers are focused on Abbot Point. In my view, that will increase the need for further potential expansion in the Hay Point precinct, whether its the existing DBCT terminal site or an adjacent site, said Ross. Looking to the future, another key rail link will be one linking the Surat Basin with Gladstone. Size-wise, the development of the huge new thermal coal provinces is likely to see terminal expansions, of 30, 40 or 50 million tones pa, far larger than the incremental lifts of 5 or 10 million tonnes than predominated over the last 20 years. The economies of scale in terminal development are best when the rail in-loading and ship-loading streams are approaching full utilization, explained Ross. The incremental cost of a terminal expansion, of say 10Mtpa, can be low if it only requires additions to the stockyard, but it can also be very high if we need, for example, to widen a jetty, or build a new berth or dump station. As the new mines that are driving development get larger, I expect well see the owners of mines and terminals coordinate their expansions so that they take place in large economic increments of a fully utilized dump station and ship-loader at a time, typically 30Mtpa.

Engineering, Project Management and Operations Support

Aurecon Hatch (formerly Connell Hatch) is Australias leading consultant focused on the complete coal production chain, including coal mine plant and infrastructure, heavy haul rail transport, and coal export terminals. We have a track record of successful delivery of major export coal terminal developments and expansions, including the current 25Mtpa expansion at Abbot Point, the recently completed 30Mtpa expansion at Dalrymple Bay, and the new 30Mtpa NCIG Terminal in Newcastle which we are currently commissioning, ahead of schedule. We integrate world class marine and materials handling engineering with safe, reliable, cost effective project and construction management to deliver export capacity to Australias coal exporters.

Ross Parslow t: +61 7 3166 7250 | e: parslowr@aureconhatch.com www.aureconhatch.com

OVERHEADDESIGN TERMINAL

Slide shows the mature basins Bowen, Hunter and Southern as well as the emerging basins the Galilee, Surat and Gunnedah. With few options for new deep water ports, and conflicting land uses impacting potential sites like Shoalwater Bay, industry is likely to fall back upon expansions at Abbot Point, Hay Point, Gladstone and Newcastle.

At Abbot Point, the firm is helping North Queensland Bulk Ports complete the X50 expansion, while also advising on options for further terminals. At Hay Point, where the 2nd stage expansion has been completed, the firm is in detailed design for a 3rd stage expansion for BMA. At Dalrymple Bay, Aurecon Hatch recently completed the 7X expansion from 55 to 85Mtpa. This was a very successful EPCM, said Ross. It was a very complex brown fields expansion project and was completed with minimum disruption to operations. It was launched in a period where construction markets were overheated, and we were very pleased with the schedule and cost outcomes achieved. Many projects built between 2005 and 2009 experienced major cost over-runs. Moving south, the firm is completing detailed engineering design for the proposed Wiggins Island coal terminal, which in its first stage will have capacity of more than 25Mtpa. It is also providing procurement and project management assistance to the consortium of miners behind Wiggins Island; as part of this it recently completed a supplementary technical feasibility study.
Checking clearance between a reclaimer bucket wheel and new concrete wall panel at Dalrymple Bay.

Technology-wise, Aurecon Hatch, like other EPCM firms, is increasingly applying 3D design software to materials handling projects like coal terminals. We have long applied these systems to process plants but until recently they were less used on bulk handling work We did Dalrymple Bay 7X as a 2D project, but we are doing the designs in 3D for the Wiggins Island coal terminal and Hay point expansions, said Ross. In future, unless theres a strong drawing base in 2D, wed generally use 3D for terminal design. In terms of staffing, setting up a team for a major EPCM terminal project will typically require 80 to 100 people. Ross noted that its not easy to find people with the right experience, especially if the coal industry expands as rapidly as expected, but we are fortunate to be able to draw on a substantial pool of experienced engineers, designers and project management staff from Aurecon and Hatch. Aurecon Hatchs corporate predecessors have had a long tradition in coal terminal work. Aurecons forerunner Connell Wagner was involved in the original design work for the Abbot Point and Dalrymple Bay coal terminals and Hatch antecedent BHP Engineering in the original Kooragang Island Coal Terminal. Currently, and looking to the future, Aurecon Hatch is involved in many of the terminal expansions and upgrades on the east coast.
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At RG Tanna, which was last expanded two years ago, Aurecon Hatch did the engineering and management of offshore works. In NSW, the firm is completing the EPCM delivery of the Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Groups (NCIG) greenfield coal terminal on Kooragang Island, which, in its first stage has a capacity of 30Mtpa. Again, Ross judged this facility well delivered in an overheated market, particularly set against the background of a challenging dredging regime in the Hunter River. We are very pleased with the commissioning and performance of the in-loading side and we have already stacked almost 100,000 tonnes of coal and operated at better than name plate rating. More importantly, we will be ready to load coal onto the first ship two months ahead of schedule. Finally, in the south, the firm has been involved in concept work for an expansion of the Port Kembla Coal Terminal.
Contact: www.aureconhatch.com

Australian Bulk Handling Review: March/April 2010