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Olex is a name that is almost synonymous with cables in Taranaki – it has been servicing the domestic and international energy sector cable markets from its Bell Block, New Plymouth factory site for over four decades.
While Olex Holdings’ corporate head office, main manufacturing and product development centres are in Victoria, Australia, New Plymouth remains its sole New Zealand manufacturing facility. The group produces over 20,000 different types of cables and employs more than 700 staff in Australia and New Zealand, with sales offices and distribution centres throughout Asia-Pacific. In New Zealand, Olex has been heavily involved with nearly every modern-day energy project -- from the original Kapuni and Maui gas field developments of the 1960s and 70s, through the “think big” projects of the 1980s, to the present quartet of major developments off the coast of Taranaki. Industrial products manager Kelvin Cooper says Olex New Zealand is committed to remaining part of the top cable suppliers in Australasia and the Asia-Pacific. Part of that commitment includes a recently completed a $1 million upgrade of its Bell Block manufacturing site. “Upgrading the facilities was in order to increase the output of medium voltage cables, to meet increasing domestic demand and to meet the surge in export work, mainly in the Queensland market,” Cooper told Energy NZ. He says that because of the upgrade, the plant is now operational around the clock, seven days a week. This has significantly increased staff numbers by 40 to a New Zealand total that now exceeds 180. Cooper says the number of recent Taranaki energy-related contracts that Olex has won is almost too many to mention. It supplied all the onshore power and instrumentation cables, in a contract worth about $1 million, for the nearly completed billion-dollar Pohokura gas-condensate project just off north Taranaki. Also last year, it supplied instrumentation and power cables, including cables to connect to the national electricity grid, for Genesis Energy’s new gas-fired power station at Huntly known as e3p (Energy Efficiency Enhancement Project). Further diversification involves supplying cables to coal mines and wind farms. It is supplying all underground 11kV power supply cables, in a total package worth about $2.5 million, to the West Coast Pike River Coal development near Greymouth. Its wind farm contracts so far have included the second and third phases of TrustPower’s Tararua development near Palmerston North, Meridian Energy’s proposed project at Makara, Wellington, and New Zealand Windfarms’ Te Rere Hau wind farm in the Manawatu. As well, it is supplying – in association with the South Korean office of French firm Nexans – various contracts worth about $5 million for the $1.1 billion Kupe gas-condensate project off south Taranaki. Nexans, the world’s largest cable manufacturer, bought Olex Holdings late last year for approximately $570 million. Olex NZ and Nexans are supplying medium voltage and low voltage cables for the onshore Kupe production station south of Hawera, as well as fibre optic cables for the topsides module associated with the offshore platform about 30 kilometres offshore. “This Nexans’ acquisition provides Olex New Zealand with access to a comprehensive array of innovative products and manufacturing facilities dotted around the globe, including in Asia, where products are routinely sourced,” says Cooper. Next: Trusting Taranaki Energy NZ No.4 Autumn 2008 |
Olex New Zealand, which is now part of Australasia’s largest power cable manufacturer Olex Holdings, started manufacturing various electrical power cables at Bell Block in 1967.