Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry

6.5 Contracts in ISO
Review of contracts is set forth in ISO 9001 (ISO 9001 Section 4.3) and, in 
summary, the requirements for preparing and reviewing contracts in ISO 
are as follow:
• Contracts 
document
• Review 
contracts
• Procedures
• Requirements
• Capability of contractors or service provider
The contracts may contain a part of the ISO or refer to it. The contract 
document must contain a quality plan from the supplier or contractor, as well 
as plans to review the quality of the deliverables. It is strongly recommended 
that, before signing the contracts by the parties, it be reviewed closer and 
verified that all requirements are presented in the contract clearly. We must 
make sure that the supplier or contractor has the ability to perform the con-
tract in the case of any more requirements in excess of the primary scope. The 
adding scope must be negotiated and incorporated into the final contract.
6.6 FIDIC 
Contracts
FIDIC contracts are the most popular contracts and are dealt with through 
international projects. FIDIC is the abbreviation for “Federation International 
Des Ingenieures Conseils.” It means the “International Federation of 
Consulting Engineers.” This union is comprised of assemblies of consult-
ing engineers in different countries and was established in 1913 through the 
participation of three European societies and two architects of the French 
Society of consultant engineers (CICF), the Swiss architects consultant engi-
neers (ASIC), and the Belgian Society of Consultant engineers (CICB).
The first conference was held in 1914 in the city of Berne. The consultant 
engineer has been defined in the conference as “the engineer who holds 
the scientific and technological knowledge and professional and scientific 
expertise, and who practiced law in his own name independent of any 
commercial enterprise or government for the client and does not receive 
any money except from his agent.”
This union stopped working temporarily during World War II and 
then re-organized itself again in the 50s and 60s and emerged as a major 
development of the activity of FIDIC. It won international attention, 
strengthened its relations with the United Nations and World Bank, and 

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Tendering, Bidding, and Contract Traps 191
lasted for some countries outside Europe such as Japan, America, and some 
countries of the Third World. Its membership includes about 65 associa-
tions of consulting engineers from around the world, including three Arab 
countries, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.
The city of Lausanne in Switzerland is the headquarters of the Secretariat 
of the FIDIC. The most important activities carried out by FIDIC are the 
number of conditions typical of construction contracts and contracts 
covering different aspects of engineering, as there are books with red 
covers which focus on the contracts between the employer and the contrac-
tor for the civil works. A Yellow Book is special for the contract between 
the owner and the contractor for electrical and mechanical comprehensive 
installation. The Orange Book is for the turnkey design, while the White 
Paper is the terms of the employer with the consultant engineer.
The first edition of the book of general conditions for the implementa-
tion of civil construction work was published in 1957. Some items were 
added for the work of dredging in the second edition, which was published 
in 1969 and 1973. The review of the conditions were set forth in the con-
tract with the World Bank and European Union contractors and after this 
review the World Bank approved the use of the terms of this contract in 
projects that the World Bank financed and rolled prints in 1987, 1988, and 
issued in 1992 and then issued as recently as 1996 in the book FIDIC. This 
book identifies the client as the employer and the Consulting Engineer, the 
contractor, and the definite relationships among them.
The book contains the general conditions of FIDIC’s construction of 
civil works in the following: