Ten roles, ordered by the only published headcount we could find that breaks a project down trade by trade. For each one: what the job actually is, when it mobilises, and — the part that costs people money — which certificate an employer recognises and which one is being sold to you for nothing.
Where the numbers come from. They are direct hires on Alaska LNG, published by the Alaska Department of Labor: 11,850 in total across a gas treatment plant, an 807-mile pipeline and a liquefaction plant. source
Where they do not come from. No Gulf or African LNG project publishes its workforce by trade. We checked the impact assessments for Mozambique LNG, Papua New Guinea, Ichthys, Gorgon, Wheatstone and others: they publish a peak total and stop. So read the order as the shape of a large construction project, not as a headcount for Ruwais or Jafurah. A Gulf site carries far more scaffolding and manual labour than a unionised American one.
Fake recruitment in this industry does not usually start with a fake job. It starts with a real-sounding qualification. You are told the job is yours once you hold a particular card, the card costs a few hundred dollars, and the training centre happens to be a friend of the agent.
The International Labour Organization is explicit that this is a recruitment fee. Its fair recruitment guidance says workers shall not be charged, directly or indirectly, any fees or related costs for their recruitment — and it names training and skills testing among those related costs when they are required to get the job. ILO
On the pages below, three certificates that are sold constantly and are not what the seller says: the OSHA card, which OSHA itself says is neither a certification nor a requirement; a "Gulf rigger licence", which does not exist in any form; and a pipefitter certification, for which no issuing body anywhere has a standard.
If someone used the name EPC Radar to ask you for money, it was not us. Tell us: epcradar@gmail.com
Numbers are direct hires on Alaska LNG. A dash means no source publishes a headcount for that trade — we are not going to invent one.
01 · Site logistics
The largest single occupation on the project — more than pipefitters, welders and insulators combined.
Trucks move almost everything: bulk materials, smaller prefabricated modules, equipment, and people. The Alaska LNG plan estimates 250 to 270 trucks running during the peak construction years, across an 807-mile pipeline, eight compressor stations and two plants.
Phase 2 (preconstruction and construction), and logistics runs longer than most trades: road and bridge work spans the entire life of the project. Alaska Dept. of Labor, AGIA occupations study
QatarEnergy's HSE Regulations for Contractors list it among the required courses for contractor personnel. No certifying body is named — the contractor arranges it. source
TÜV SÜD's Qatar forklift scheme will not certify anyone who does not already hold a current, valid Qatari driving licence. Expect the same logic for heavy vehicles: the local licence is the gate, not the extra. source
What we could not confirm. We could not find a government source setting out heavy-vehicle licence categories or conversion rules for Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Qatar. Anyone who quotes you those rules with confidence should be asked where they read them.
02 · Including riggers' mates
Second largest group, and the one most often filled locally.
The work that every other trade depends on: moving material, preparing access, assisting riggers and fitters, housekeeping the work front. PNG LNG's national content plan lists labourers first among its construction positions.
This is the role most likely to go to local hires. On Mozambique LNG, CCS JV states that employment priority goes to Mozambican nationals who meet project requirements, and its own subcontractor figures show it: catering, 1,300 of 1,340 workers Mozambican; camp construction, 350 of 600. source
Phase 2, from early civil works onward. Alaska Dept. of Labor, AGIA occupations study
We could not find a certification requirement from any issuing body. If someone offers to sell you a labourer's certificate, there is nothing behind it.
Banksman & Slinger Initial Training and Rigger Initial Training. Both are 24 guided learning hours, roughly 70% practical, and valid two years and eight months. Read OPITO's own warning carefully: the certificate "does not imply competence" — it is stage one of three, followed by supervised logged experience and only then a competence assessment. source
03 · Process piping
Counted on one line with welders and insulators — the published number does not separate them.
Cutting, fitting and erecting process piping to drawing and to code. On an LNG or refinery site the governing code is usually ASME B31.3, which covers materials, design, fabrication, assembly, erection, examination and testing of piping in refineries and cryogenic plants. ASME B31.3 Process Piping
Phase 2. On Alaska LNG the first construction peak, around 4,200 workers, is described as heavy civil and welding-intensive pipeline trades. Alaska Workforce Investment Board, 2026
We searched every issuing body we could find and there is no personnel certification standard for pipefitting. The tickets on a piping crew belong to the welder, not to the fitter. If a recruiter or a training centre offers to sell you a "certified pipefitter" qualification, they are selling a piece of paper that no employer recognises, because none exists.
04 · Pipe and structural
The trade with the most real, checkable qualifications — and therefore the most faked ones.
Two different code worlds, and which one applies decides which ticket you need. Pressure and process piping falls under ASME; load-bearing steel structures fall under AWS D1.1.
Phase 2, with the pipeline and mechanical erection fronts. Alaska Workforce Investment Board, 2026
Covers qualification of welding procedures, and — per ASME's own course material for the section — performance qualification of welders and welding operators. source
This one qualifies the person, not the procedure. Its stated focus is the welder's ability to manipulate the electrode or torch by hand and produce an acceptable weld. Manual and partly mechanised fusion welding of steels; fully mechanised and automated welding are excluded. source
Procedure qualification, welder qualification, fabrication, workmanship, inspection and acceptance criteria for load-bearing steel structures. source
6G means the pipe is fixed at 45 degrees and the welder has to work all the way around it — the most demanding of the four test positions. You do not get "a 6G". You get a welder qualification taken in the 6G position, under one of the codes above. Anyone selling you "a 6G certificate" on its own does not know the subject, or is counting on you not knowing it. source
05 · Lifting and earthmoving
The role where the phrase "Gulf certification" is most often used to sell something worthless.
Cranes, excavators, forklifts, telehandlers and the lifting crews around them. QatarEnergy groups the certified roles as rigging supervisors, riggers, crane operators and forklift operators.
Phase 2, from earthworks through mechanical erection. Alaska Dept. of Labor, AGIA occupations study
Requirements are set by the client, project by project, and delivered through commercial third-party bodies. QatarEnergy requires lifting personnel to be certified against its own technical regulations — not against an international scheme. source
TÜV Rheinland's Qatar scheme LPC-005 certifies rigger, banksman, rigging supervisor and lifting supervisor. Minimum age 18, 15 to 20 hours of training, written and practical exams at 70%, certificate valid between one and three years. The scheme itself says that any additional client requirements still have to be met on top. source
LEEA's own qualifications are for lifting equipment engineers and inspectors, not for crane drivers. Its Accredited Training Scheme is what covers slingers, riggers and operators, and it is delivered by member companies. QatarEnergy asks its lifting service providers whether their inspectors hold LEEA or equivalent — inspectors, not operators. source
What we could not confirm. NCCCO in the United States certifies crane operators, signalpersons and riggers at Levels I and II on a five-year term. Its material says the programs are accredited without naming the accreditor, so we are not repeating the "ANSI-accredited" claim you will see elsewhere.
06 · E&I, hazardous area
Mobilises late — which is exactly why people apply too early and give up.
An LNG plant is an explosive atmosphere. That single fact governs the work and the qualifications: installation, inspection and maintenance of equipment rated for hazardous areas, plus the instrumentation that runs the plant.
Late. Alaska LNG's second construction peak, around 4,500 workers in 2029, is explicitly described as mechanical and electrical-intensive facility construction, against a first peak of heavy civil and welding. This is the clearest published evidence that E&I follows civil and piping. Alaska Workforce Investment Board, 2026
Installation, inspection and maintenance of Ex electrical equipment where gas and vapours are present. CompEx names its audience as practising electricians and instrumentation technicians. Typically five days, six for non-native English speakers. UKAS accredited. Core competence certificate valid five years. source
Twelve units, Ex 000 to Ex 011, from basic awareness through installation, maintenance, inspection, testing, design and audit. Issued through independent IECEx-approved certification bodies. source
What we could not confirm. Be careful how you read the two above. They are the recognised hazardous-area qualifications, but we could not find a single Gulf client document that names either one as contractually mandatory. Useful, widely respected, not provably compulsory.
07 · Access
No published headcount — and the one trade where the wrong training centre makes your card worthless.
Access for everyone else: erecting, altering, dismantling and inspecting scaffold so that fitters, welders, painters and insulators can reach the work. The CISRS card ladder shows the progression — labourer, base, trainee, scaffolder, advanced scaffolder, plus separate inspection and supervisor cards. CISRS card scheme
The Overseas Scaffolder Training Scheme runs on the same principles as the UK scheme, with accredited centres in Abu Dhabi, China, India, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar and Trinidad. Levels 1 to 4, plus scaffold inspection and supervisor. source
CISRS states plainly that it will only issue a card for training and assessment carried out at a CISRS accredited centre. Scaffolding training anywhere else does not convert, does not count and cannot be upgraded later. Check the centre against the CISRS list before you pay, not after. source
QatarEnergy's contractor regulations require scaffold to be erected, altered or dismantled only by a qualified scaffolding contractor to its own requirements. They do not name CISRS. The card gets you hired by the contractor; it is not itself the client's rule. source
What we could not confirm. No published source maps scaffolders to a construction phase. Our own read, and we are labelling it as ours: scaffolders arrive with bulk mechanical and piping work and stay through commissioning, because insulation, painting and punchlisting all need access.
08 · Welding inspection and NDT
No published headcount. The best-documented qualifications of any role here.
Checking that what was built matches the code and the drawing, and recording it so it can be signed off. CSWIP defines the ladder precisely: 3.0 visual welding inspector works under supervision; 3.1 welding inspector supervises them, witnesses tests and verifies welder approvals; 3.2 senior welding inspector takes final acceptance and certification. CSWIP welding inspector scheme document
Entry needs three years of welding inspection experience under qualified supervision, independently verified — or two years as a CSWIP visual welding inspector. The exam is two theory papers and a practical inspection of eight specimens, with 70% required on every part. Valid five years; past ten years you re-sit. source
Three parts: fundamentals, a hands-on practical, and an open-book code paper, with a minimum of 72% on each and a vision test. Valid nine years, with renewals at three and six. source
This is the most consequential distinction on this page. ISO 9712 is a third-party certification: an independent body examines you and the certificate is yours, valid five years, across employers. ASNT's SNT-TC-1A is different in kind — ASNT states that certificates based on it are employer-based programmes for which ASNT does not hold responsibility, and that you are certified by your employer under your employer's written practice. Change employer and you generally start again. Know which one you are being offered before you pay for it. source
Level 1 carries out tests under written instructions and under Level 2 or 3 supervision, and cannot select the method or assess the results. Level 2 chooses techniques, calibrates, interprets and evaluates. Level 3 takes responsibility for the facility, the procedures and the staff. source
09 · Safety
No published headcount. The role with the most widely sold useless card.
Permit to work, risk assessment, toolbox talks, incident investigation, and the authority to stop a job. QatarEnergy requires contractors to appoint HSE officers in proportion to workforce size and risk, and to put them through its own competence assessment on top of their qualifications. QatarEnergy HSE Regulations for Contractors
QatarEnergy's corporate HSE standard requires HSE advisers to hold at least one of: a NEBOSH Certificate or Diploma; Chartered Membership of IOSH (CMIOSH); a Diploma in Occupational Safety and Health Management or membership of IIRSM; or Registered Safety Professional status. source
NEBOSH's International General Certificate is a qualification — two units, an open-book scenario examination with a closing interview and a practical risk assessment, a minimum of 63 taught hours. IOSH Managing Safely is a three-day course for supervisors. Note what the QatarEnergy list above actually names on the IOSH side: chartered membership, not the course. source
"The Outreach Training Program is voluntary and OSHA does not require Outreach training." And: "an OSHA card is not considered a certification or license." Those are OSHA's words on OSHA's website. People are sold these cards every day as a requirement for Gulf work. They are not. source
10 · Materials
No published headcount, and — genuinely — no standard ticket.
Receiving, preserving, storing and issuing everything the site installs, and knowing where it is. The Alaska Department of Labor treats material handling and logistics as two of the ten occupational groups significant to pipeline construction; PNG LNG lists store managers among its construction positions. Alaska Dept. of Labor, AGIA occupations study
No issuing body and no employer document we could find sets a certification requirement for a site materials controller. General supply-chain qualifications exist — CIPS, APICS CPIM — but we found no evidence that any EPC contractor asks for them for this job. What counts here is experience with a materials management system and with preservation requirements.
What we could not confirm. No published source places warehousing in a construction phase. Our own read: it has to start before bulk construction, because material must be received and preserved before it can be installed, and it carries on into commissioning for spares.
BOSIET is offshore survival training. OPITO, which sets the standard, describes it as being for personnel new or returning to the offshore industry who will be supplied with a compressed air emergency breathing system during offshore helicopter travel. It covers helicopter ditching and escape, sea survival, firefighting and first aid. Around 20 hours, valid a maximum of four years. OPITO
The trigger is the helicopter, not the industry. If you are going to work on an LNG train on land, you do not need it. QatarEnergy's own corporate standard confirms where the line sits: it requires tropical BOSIET for offshore contractor personnel. QatarEnergy
If you are genuinely going offshore in a tropical region, T-BOSIET is the right one and OPITO-approved centres run in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, Angola and the Philippines. If you are going onshore and someone insists you need BOSIET first, that is the moment to stop and check the job offer itself.
Both of the countries most of our readers write from run a public register and a complaints route. Use them — they are free, and they are the only opinion that counts.
One caution about a number you will see quoted. Two Indian government pages give different caps on what a recruiting agent may charge — one says ₹30,000, the other says a maximum of 45 days' wages capped at ₹20,000. We could not establish which is current, so we are giving you both and the links rather than a single figure that might be wrong.
These are not our words. Each of these companies publishes a fraud warning on its own careers or ethics page, and they all say the same thing.
McDermott's careers search is the most useful of the set if you want to filter by trade — it has categories for onshore and offshore construction, fabrication, quality, QHSES, supply chain and marine. Most of the others route to a portal with no trade filter, and two of them had no searchable vacancy list at all when we checked.