The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) is in full swing this week over in Houston. While onshore oil & gas production has been getting all the attention with the Permian Basin here in Texas, offshore production is making big strides around the globe. A Forbes article, Don’t Look Now, But There’s An Oil Boom Going On Outside The Permian Basin, highlights a recent Rystad Energy report which found:
…the pace of new global discoveries during the first quarter of 2019 is significantly higher than in recent years, and would, if it continues, represent a 30% increase over the pace in 2018.
I mention this because of the costs and complexity in planning and executing offshore oil & gas production projects. In an Oil & Gas Technology article, Restoring Confidence in Energy Capital Project Investment, Emerson’s Systems & Solutions group president, Jim Nyquist notes that many projects use outdated project approaches which risk success.
Often built following decades-old engineering practices, many projects have fallen victim to overly customized designs that fail to capitalize on the latest best practices — driving uncertainty, cost and schedule risk.
And, the complexity of these projects continues to grow and so does the need for collaboration among the extended project team of operators, engineering contractors and suppliers. Jim explains:
We have digitally transformed projects, using advanced tools like cloud engineering, virtualization, workflow automation and real-time analytics to strong results.
By embracing new technologies and work processes:
…customers are reducing their total installed automation costs by 30 to 40 percent and seeing three- to six-month schedule improvements.
Savings are achieved by following three basic principles:
…eliminate costs, reduce complexity and embed more flexibility to accommodate late changes.
For example, in eliminating costs, a:
…staggering 80 percent of commissioning time can be eliminated by using a smart commissioning strategy [hyperlink added]. At a time when the automation schedule is critical, that is an enormous advantage.
Read the article for other examples that Jim provides in reducing complexity, adopting technologies accommodating late project changes, and embracing cloud-based collaborative engineering practices.
Visit the Project Certainty section on Emerson.com for a deeper look at the technologies and work practices that can increase the probability of capital project success. You can also connect and interact with other project execution experts in the Services group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.
