Emerson Exchange 365

by Walt Boyes

As part of a global agreement between BP and Emerson Process Management, the companies are working closely together--along with engineering firm KBR--to design, build and deploy offshore platforms in the Caspian Sea off Baku, Azerbaijan.

“We call this presentation Part II, because we did Part I three years ago,” began Raoul Mercer, director project pursuit Europe for Emerson Process Management, referencing this week's presentation at Emerson Exchange and one given three years ago. He presented, along with Mark Showler, MAX/ICSS delivery manager, for BP Global Projects Organization, on how early engagement among a main automation contractor (MAC), the operating company and engineering firm can contribute to smoother project execution.

BP splits its project execution process into five phases, Showler said. The first is Appraise. This is where the team determines where to invest and confirms commercial viability of the opportunity. Then there’s Select. In this phase, the team evaluates the alternative concepts for the structure of the project. Then, BP moves on to Define. This is where the technical definition is developed and improved. This is the part of the process most companies call FEED, front-end engineering design. After FEED comes Execute, which starts with a formal commitment to the project by management and goes through detailed design to construction and then commissioning. Last is Operate, where first hydrocarbons are pumped, and continuous operation is achieved.

“The time before the final investment decision is more fluid,” Mercer said. “After that, final investment decision (FID) + X time to completion becomes quite rigid and leads to potential problems if not all decisions are made early. “I’ve never seen, despite scope creep and problems, that date move.”

Mercer and Showler believe that the best way to deal with the FID+X problem is to select the MAC vendor at the earliest possible moment in the project. “Our company standards, in fact,” said Showler, “are to select the MAC as early as possible but no later than the end of ‘Select’. This means we can treat the FEED as a real project, without generic or theoretical design. We can move directly into the actual project design, because we have the MAC and the engineering contractor on board at the start.”

Showler said, though, that FEED is so complex for a project like Shah Deniz 2, which is the largest offshore project in the world right now, that his team has found that it is better to divide it into chunks and do each chunk to completion before moving on to the next set of chunks.

In the first project Mercer and Showler did, the West Chirag platform, they were able to get the cabinets delivered on time, and the field cabling could therefore be done on time. The base software was delivered on time, enabling loop checking, and the full software complement was delivered on time to be used in commissioning.

“Were there issues?” Mercer asked, rhetorically. “Of course. But we were able to resolve them by having already created relationships of respect and trust. We had been engaged earlier, so we had a much longer opportunity to build them than if the MAC was selected after the FEED.”

“In the new project, we began with chunking for the FEED, and we separated commercial coverage from technical approval,” Showler said. “This enabled us to calculate a high level budget based on resources, with order placement on a single, not to exceed, value.”

“The way it works is that KBR creates the scope of work, and then Emerson responds with a cost-time-resources sheet. This is iterated between BP, KBR and Emerson until a final plan is produced,” Showler said. “We found we needed a single and clear point of ownership, so KBR has the final say. Technical accountability remains with the engineering contractor, but the project is jointly developed.”

“We found that there continue to be benefits in selecting the MAC early. It allows you to build a strong relationship. That and trust will get you through the ‘argh’ points in the project,” Showler said. “There is always room for continuous improvement in the FEED process, too, and we found that it is easier when you break the FEED down into those more manageable chunks.”