Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry

1.3.4 Detail 
Engineering
At the end of this phase, the engineering office will deliver the full con-
struction drawings and specifications for the whole project that contain all 
the details that the contractor will execute.

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16 
Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry
In this phase, there will be a large number of engineering hours, so it 
is necessary to have good coordination between the different disciplines.
Changes might occur in the cooperation between departments and, 
therefore, vary depending on the performance of the work of managers. 
The system of quality assurance is a benefit as it provides us with the basic 
functioning of all departments, despite any change in personnel. These 
problems often occur at the stage of the study that requires the coopera-
tion of extensive, vital, and influential team members among the various 
departments of engineering such as civil, architectural, mechanical, and 
electrical departments.
For example, when the managers of the Department of Civil and 
Mechanical Engineering have a strong relationship and there are regular 
meetings, good work will come from it and the meetings and correspon-
dence will be fruitful.
You can easily determine whether your business might benefit from 
the quality assurance systems or not by taking a closer look at past expe-
riences (and this method has been described in the book by Richard 
German).
When you discuss with the team and you find that the goals and expec-
tations are not clear between colleagues, then you should ask yourself if 
the majority of problems can be avoided if individuals committed to work 
through pre-agreed measures. All colleagues should fully and clearly know 
their role.
The system of quality assurance in this stage is important as it organizes 
the work, everyone knows the target of the project, and everyone’s respon-
sibility in the project is clear. The concept of quality is defined with a sup-
ported document.
The documents are regarded as the executive arm of the process of the 
application of quality. Therefore, any amendment or correction in the 
drawings should go through the procedure and agreed system.
The drawings should be sent in a specified time to the client for review 
and discussion through an official transmittal letter to control the process 
time. Any comments or inquiries should be discussed and made through 
agreement between the two technical parties, then the modification will 
be made by the engineering firm and resent to the client through the same 
communication procedure.
Through the development of a particular system, to avoid other cop-
ies of the drawings, so as not to confuse with them and to avoid human 
error, through control, the documents register and should have the date of 
the drawings, engineering review dates, and continued monitoring in the 
document cycle until it reaches the final stage of the project. Finally, the 

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How to Manage Oil and Gas Projects 17
final approval of the drawing will be taken and sealed with stamp indicat-
ing “Approve For Construction” that these are final drawings for approval 
of the construction.
After the completion of the detailed engineering phase, the specifica-
tions and drawings are ready for the execution phase. You can imagine that, 
in some projects, the documents may reach hundreds of volumes, espe-
cially the specifications and other operation manuals, as well as volumes of 
maintenance and repairs.