Outage Surveys — Karratha

TL;DR: A shutdown survey Karratha operators can rely on delivers mm-accurate alignment, fit-check and as-built measurement inside the fixed window when a Burrup process plant or Pilbara processing line is taken offline for a turnaround. On the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG trains, the Yara Pilbara ammonia and nitrate plants, and the rotary and bulk-handling assets feeding Dampier and Cape Lambert, every hour offline costs $50,000–$200,000 — so the outage survey is planned to the hour, executed to sub-millimetre tolerances, and kept off the critical path. This is the local companion to our outage survey service and our Karratha and Pilbara mining survey hub.

Key takeaways

• Karratha is the turnaround capital of the north-west: the Burrup Peninsula on its doorstep packs Woodside's North West Shelf and Pluto LNG trains, the Yara Pilbara ammonia plant and Yara Pilbara Nitrates (Burrup) TAN facility into one precinct, each running scheduled major shutdowns where survey is on the critical path.
• ISS achieves ±0.3–1.0 mm rotating-equipment alignment, ±0.02–0.05 mm coupling coaxiality with a FARO laser tracker, and 2–6 mm at 50 m laser-scan accuracy using Leica MS60, TS16 and RTC360 instruments — all calibrated to ISO/IEC 17025 and traceable to national standards.
• The work runs in five phases — scope lock-down 4–6 weeks out, control before the area congests, pre-outage baseline, in-outage execution, and post-outage as-built verification before recommissioning.
• LNG train turnarounds, ammonia and nitrate plant shutdowns, Dampier Salt rotary-plant change-outs, and crusher, mill and conveyor work feeding Rio Tinto's Dampier and Cape Lambert ports are the primary triggers across the Karratha region.
• A Karratha shutdown survey runs from roughly AUD $15,000 for a limited scope to $60,000+ for a major LNG or ammonia turnaround with continuous attendance and full scanning, plus remote-site travel — recovered the moment it prevents a single re-lift or a few hours of slip.

Outage and shutdown surveys in the Karratha region

Karratha is best known as the service hub of the iron ore and LNG Pilbara — 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, gateway to Rio Tinto's Dampier and Cape Lambert export terminals and Woodside's North West Shelf and Pluto operations. What that profile understates is how much of the region's value sits inside continuous-process plant that has to be deliberately taken offline to be maintained. The Burrup Peninsula is one of Western Australia's densest heavy-process precincts, and an LNG train, an ammonia reformer or a nitrate granulation line earns nothing from the moment it is isolated until it restarts. The window in which that plant is cold, open and accessible is the outage — and the survey done inside it is what proves the plant goes back together within tolerance.

An outage survey, also called a shutdown or turnaround survey, is the dimensional control, alignment and as-built measurement carried out while an asset is offline for a defined maintenance window. The defining constraint is not accuracy — ISS holds the same tolerances year-round — it is the schedule. The maintenance team strips worn components, rebuilds or replaces equipment, and puts everything back, and they need independent measurement to prove each step before the next one starts. Without it, alignment is checked by feeler gauge and tape, fit-up problems surface when a crane is already holding a forty-tonne module in 40°C heat, and as-built records are reconstructed after restart.

This page covers how that service is delivered in Karratha and across the wider Pilbara: where it applies, the method and equipment ISS uses, the standards and tolerances, and why an independent, FIFO-capable surveyor is the right choice for remote-site turnarounds.

Key point: A shutdown survey is not a routine alignment job that happens to fall during an outage. Methodology, crew size, instrument selection and reporting cadence are all chosen to fit the window, not the other way round. On a Burrup LNG or ammonia turnaround, a method that is "more accurate" but two hours slower can cost more than it saves.

Local applications and sites

The Karratha region carries several distinct populations of shutdown-dependent plant, and ISS surveys all of them.

LNG train turnarounds — North West Shelf and Pluto

Woodside's North West Shelf project on the Burrup runs the longest-established LNG trains in the country, with Pluto LNG alongside and the Scarborough-fed Pluto Train 2 adding capacity. LNG turnarounds are among the most tightly scheduled industrial shutdowns anywhere: gas turbines and compressor strings need coupling alignment and coaxiality verification, heat-exchanger and vessel internals need as-built capture while open, and tie-in spools for modifications have to be fit-checked before they are lifted. This is exactly the work where a survey program either protects the window or quietly blows it.

Ammonia and nitrate plant shutdowns — Burrup Peninsula

Yara Pilbara Fertilisers operates one of the world's largest single-train ammonia plants on the peninsula, and the adjacent Yara Pilbara Nitrates (Burrup) joint venture produces technical ammonium nitrate for the regional explosives market. Their shutdowns turn on rotating equipment alignment — reformer-area pumps and compressors, granulation drums, dryers and coolers — plus baseplate and foundation flatness checks while the equipment is removed and the bedplates are clean and accessible. In a hot, hygroscopic, salt-laden duty, the outage is the only time that geometry can be measured and corrected.

Salt, iron ore and bulk-handling shutdowns — Dampier and Cape Lambert

Dampier Salt (Rio Tinto) runs one of the world's largest solar salt operations adjacent to Karratha, with rotary dryers and screening plant that are change-out targets during planned shutdowns. The iron ore export chain through Dampier and Cape Lambert brings crushers, stacker-reclaimers, shiploaders and some of the longest conveyors in Australia — all of which carry alignment, crane-runway and structural-geometry tasks that can only be done when the line is stopped.

The signals that should put a surveyor on the work list are consistent across all of these: alignment currently checked by tape and feeler gauge, fit-up problems that routinely surface mid-lift, as-built records reconstructed after restart, and any change-out where a new module, rotor or shell section must fit existing structure.

Method and equipment

Outage survey instrumentation has to be accurate, portable, fast to deploy and tolerant of heat, salt air, dust and vibration — and on the Burrup it works through summer temperatures that routinely top 40°C and a corrosive marine atmosphere. ISS selects the instrument to the task and the schedule, not by default, and calibrates everything annually to ISO/IEC 17025.

1. Scope definition and methodology (4–6 weeks out) — ISS reviews the outage work list, isolates every survey-dependent activity, and maps a measurement methodology against the shutdown schedule. A pre-outage site visit confirms access, hazards, control and line of sight, so critical-path survey tasks are resourced rather than discovered on the day.
2. Control network establishment (1–2 weeks out) — A stable 3D control network is set around the work area with a Leica TS16 or MS60 MultiStation, using monumented or semi-permanent reference points positioned to survive scaffolding, crane movements and demolition. Setting control before the area congests is the single biggest in-outage time saver.
3. Pre-outage baseline capture — As-found geometry is captured while the plant still runs or immediately after stop: rotating-equipment centrelines, bearing elevations, removal clearances and structural references for reassembly. This baseline is the reference against which all post-work measurement is judged.
4. In-outage execution — The core of the shutdown survey. ISS measures in sequence with mechanical activity — dimensional verification after removal, alignment setting during rebuild, fit-check and clearance survey before installation, and flatness on cleaned foundations. The Leica RTC360 captures dense as-built point clouds in under two minutes per setup; a FARO laser tracker delivers the ±0.015–0.025 mm coaxiality numbers the mechanical team signs against; Automatic Target Recognition keeps technicians clear of live lifts.
5. Post-outage verification and reporting — A final pass confirms every adjusted component is in tolerance and captures the as-built condition. A short-form recommissioning compliance summary is issued before restart; the consolidated report, as-built plans and registered scan data follow within 5–10 business days.

Critical results — anything a lift or coupling decision depends on — are reported verbally and in writing on the spot. The formal report never holds up the outage.

Key point: Scanning and total-station work are complementary on a turnaround. The RTC360 captures the whole condition for as-built and module fit-check; the total station and tracker deliver the sub-millimetre alignment numbers. Using one where the other belongs either wastes window time or undershoots the tolerance.

Standards and tolerances

Outage survey accuracy is matched to the engineering tolerance of each task, then verified against the relevant standard. The table summarises typical ISS specifications.

All instruments are ISO/IEC 17025 calibrated and measurements are traceable to national standards, with a measurement uncertainty statement supplied alongside alignment deliverables. Where the work touches structural or crane geometry, results are assessed against the relevant Australian Standard — AS 1418.18 for crane runways and AS 4100 for steel structures — or against project and OEM tolerances where those are tighter than the code. High-risk plant access is governed by site permits, with the general WHS framework applying on the Burrup process plants and the Work Health and Safety (Mines) Regulations 2022 (WA) on resources sites. Any drone-assisted thermography or aerial as-built support is flown under CASA-certified operations.

Why ISS in Karratha

ISS is an independent precision surveying firm — not tied to any OEM — so we align and verify equipment from any manufacturer using one consistent, traceable methodology, and we are typically faster to mobilise and more cost-effective to a remote site than an OEM specialist flown in from overseas. We coordinate Pilbara turnaround work on a fly-in/fly-out basis from Perth, scheduling attendance against your work list so measurement is ready the moment an area is — never before, never after.

That independent-and-local combination matters more here than almost anywhere. Western Australia's surveyor shortage is acute, the state carries more than 151,000 resources jobs and 43.6% of its economy in resources, and Karratha sits 1,500 kilometres from the nearest capital — so a single unfilled survey slot on a turnaround crew can hold a multi-million-dollar shutdown on the critical path. Our instruments are maintained for heat, salt air, dust and vibration; we carry redundant instrumentation so a single equipment failure never stops the line; and we maintain the reference network between visits so each turnaround builds on verified control. Our surveyors hold current WA site inductions, confined-space, working-at-heights and hot-work certifications, and work under your safety management system, isolation procedures and heat-stress protocols. Deliverables come in your preferred format, in your plant grid or GDA2020 as required.

The output is documentation a turnaround team can act on directly — pre-outage baseline geometry, in-outage alignment reports with deviation tables issued as each activity completes, go/no-go fit-check confirmations ahead of lifts, as-built plans, registered scan data, and a recommissioning compliance summary before restart.

Frequently asked questions

How quickly can ISS mobilise to a Karratha turnaround?

We coordinate Pilbara projects on a FIFO basis and mobilise from Perth on commercial flights or charter as required. For a planned LNG, ammonia or nitrate shutdown we lock scope and crew 4–6 weeks ahead so the survey is engineered around your window; for urgent geometry concerns during a live outage we prioritise mobilisation. Because we maintain the reference network between visits, repeat turnarounds at the same plant are faster again.

Can a shutdown survey be done without extending the outage window?

Yes — that is the whole point. Well-planned shutdown survey work runs parallel to mechanical activity and stays off the critical path: the surveyor measures when an area is ready and reports before the next activity needs the result. Overruns come from late scope and missing control, both of which the 4–6 week planning phase eliminates.

What accuracy can ISS achieve during a Karratha outage?

Rotating-equipment alignment is typically ±0.3–1.0 mm with total station and MultiStation, and ±0.02–0.05 mm for coaxiality and concentricity using a FARO laser tracker. As-built and fit-check scanning is 2–6 mm at 50 m with the Leica RTC360. All instruments are ISO/IEC 17025 calibrated and uncertainty statements accompany alignment deliverables.

Does ISS cover both LNG and process-plant turnarounds on the Burrup?

Yes. The same methodology serves Woodside's North West Shelf and Pluto LNG train turnarounds, the Yara Pilbara ammonia and nitrate shutdowns, Dampier Salt rotary-plant change-outs, and the crusher, mill, conveyor and crane-runway work in the Dampier and Cape Lambert export chains. The schedule, safety regime and deliverable cadence change with each site; the measurement does not.

Request a quote

Outage windows do not wait, and on a remote, high-temperature Burrup turnaround the difference between a survey program that protects your shutdown and one that derails it is planning, credentials and the right instrument for each task. If you have an LNG train turnaround, an ammonia or nitrate plant shutdown, or a processing change-out coming up around Karratha, talk to ISS early — we provide fixed-price shutdown survey quotes across Karratha and the wider Pilbara after a brief scoping call, working to your turnaround calendar. Contact Industrial Spatial Solutions on 0407 057 015 to scope your outage survey and request a quote.