(This is the second in a series about the Lion Oil turnaround and its impact on the local community).
By JOAN HERSHBERGER
News-Times Staff
With the downturn in the national economy, many former automotive, chemical and electrical engineers and employees have accepted entry-level jobs in the construction business — earning $10 to $12 per hour.
That is just the entry-level wage. With time, practice, improved skills and certifications, transient construction workers can earn three times that per hour, according to Ken Richardson, manager of field personnel with Wyatt Field Service Co., whose employees are working at Lion Oil this summer doing routine maintenance for the periodic turnaround.
Those willing to move from job to job around the country can earn even more with the overtime of 10- to 12-hour days and a $60-$100 per diem provided while working away from home.
Wyatt doesn’t provide regular plant maintenance. “Wyatt is a high-end contractor. High-end means the plant needs to improve its performance by taking major outages. A major outage is planned a year or more in advance. You do all these things for a year to get ready and then do it in 30 to 45 days. The plant comes down and all these ‘foreign’ people from Louisiana and Texas come and do all the things that you plan for a year or more to do,” Richardson said.
Wyatt is a specialist in gathering these people.
“They are at the upper end of the craft capability — boilermakers, pipefitters, welders and the supervision that goes with that. These are planners, scheduling safety people and quality assurance people. It is like a little army,” he said.
This summer, Lion Oil Refinery in El Dorado had a major outage when it closed down production for a major turnaround and capital improvement to expand production.
“A turnaround is basically when we shut the equipment down, isolate or line it, enter it and inspect the condition of the equipment, vessels and equipment. Parts have to be renewed, replaced, cleaned and we reverse that process to put it back into service. We evacuate all the air out of it, the hydrocarbon products, ready to heat up and make product,” explained Brett Garrett, Lion Oil turnaround manager.
Looking ahead, 18 months ago, Lion Oil began planning for this turnaround which includes a capital improvement that began a couple years ago and will not be completed for three to four years, according to Garrett.
Wyatt workers have helped at previous Lion Oil turnarounds. “Some of them have been in your plant before and they like the environment. When we were planning this, we have had some who said, ‘I like it up there. Put me on the list,’” Richardson said.
“All of Wyatt’s people are qualified with credentials. Welders have to pass our weld test. We put them into a mock environment to make the weld that they will do in the field — such as a vertical weld in a corner, upside-down.
“As with the pipefitter or boiler maker, we require A-class workers to be qualified NCCER (National Center for Construction Education and Research) — a national certification where they take a test (and it is not easy) to be certified. If they are not quite there, they will not be A-class. The A-class are the ones out front. The B-class are coming along and learning the trade. The A-class are the ones who make it work,” Richardson said.
“The ones we have are in demand. They love Wyatt and go wherever Wyatt goes. The people up here now came off of two jobs going on in Louisiana. We work on cokers and crackers primarily,” Richardson said.
Wyatt has about 510 people working at Lion Oil, according to Richardson. “Compared to some of our other jobs, that is at the upper levels” (of employees on a job).
With the ranks of employees at Lion Oil every day multiplied more than five times from the usual 450 going through the gates each day to over 2,500 for the turnaround, other temporary employees come with subcontractors providing electrical and insulation work as well as through Lion Oil’s primary maintenance sub-contractor: J Christy Construction Co.
For this year’s project, J Christy connected with the vast network of independent workers who keep former co-workers in the industry alert to job openings in the business.
One of the independent workers who found employment at Lion Oil through J Christy Construction Co., Billy Temples of Gilmore, Texas, spoke proudly of his NCCER certification and mentioned TWIC (Transportation Workers Identification Card) and MARSEC (Marine Security) cards that he had to attain to work in oil refineries along the coast.
MARSEC and “TWIC add a layer of security in place that did not exist months ago, significantly enhancing security at ports across the nation. At these ports, U.S. Coast Guard personnel ensure workers in secure areas have received a thorough background check and do not pose a threat,” according to the Transportation Security Administration Web site.
“Most of the refineries require that the temporary construction workers have a TWIC card. We fall under the Homeland Security Act because we work on the refineries on the coast. So we also have to have Marine Security or MARSEC. To get the security clearance, we have to go through the same background check that you have to get for the federal government. You cannot have a criminal record — no major felonies. This just started this year, especially on the coast. A lot of refineries have to see the TWIC card before they will hire you,” Temples said.
While TWIC and MARSEC address security issues, NCCER credentials were created to provide standardized craft training programs with portable credentials and to help address the critical workforce shortage facing the construction industry. There are different tests for different jobs and levels of expertise, according to the NCCER Web site.
With the certification, employers know that a prospective employee has completed the necessary training and passed standardized tests in the field.
On many jobs, Temples simply puts his NCCER card on the table to be hired. At other plants, such as the Lion Oil turnaround, industrial craftsmen must pass a skill test at the job site to demonstrate and prove their professional level of ability.