Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry

7.6 Operational Phase of the Project
The owner is responsible for the operation phase, as in this phase the owner 
will have full authority and responsibility to operate the project after the 
commissioning and start-up phase.
During operation there is usually a requirement to modify the facilities 
due to operation needs.
This is traditionally in the oil and gas industry in the case of an increase 
in production or a need to modify the mode of operation.
In some regular cases, workshops are extended in normal industry. Most 
international companies that follow ISO have a management of change 
system and procedure.
In this procedure, the required modification is identified and approval is 
granted from all the engineering disciplines. In new projects, it is preferred 
to go to the original engineering office that performed the design to do the 
engineering for this modification.
An example of bad management of change (MOC) in an international 
hotel is the conversion of one room from normal use to be a planet land for 

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Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry
entertainment. They put clay on the floor without performing any manage-
ment of change process and, due to this heavy load, the floor collapsed and 
damaged four cars in the garage underneath the room.
From previous experience, projects in every step of engineering and 
construction concentrate on these goals and, usually, the input from the 
operation is very little.
In most oil and gas projects, the owner creates a separate organization 
for this project. In most cases, the project is under the responsibility of 
different departments. However, the operation is the end user, but usu-
ally a limited number of operation engineers share in the project for many 
reasons, as the operation cannot release. On the other hand, the operation 
members who are usually one or two engineers just define what they need. 
In this circumstance, there is usually an expectation for not full satisfaction 
from the operations department.