Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry

7.5.1 Feasibility Study Stage
Each stage of the project is important and has a different impact on the 
whole project, but differs depending on the nature and circumstances of 
the project and its value and purpose. 

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The feasibility study phase, followed by the stage of initial studies are 
those phases at the beginning of the idea that set the goal of the project and 
then select the ideas and engineering through the preliminary studies. The 
feasibility stage defines the goal of the project and the economic feasibil-
ity of any move. For those reasons, this stage requires full study, research, 
discussions, and deliberations with the economic data to compile the pre-
liminary acceptance. 
The feasibility study phase is followed by the emergence of the idea of 
the owner, and this owner may be an individual or a number of individu-
als. The study of the project will be performed by a competent consultancy 
office, as after these feasibility studies a strategic decision will be made. It is 
important to take into account that the consultant office has experience in 
the same type of projects where it depends on the expertise of the office in 
economic and follow-up the up-to-date factor that affects the economics of 
the domestic and global market. 
The selection of the office that will do the feasibility study in the large-
scale projects is important. Sometimes, you must hire foreign offices to 
carry out such studies, where the experience is important and vital.
7.5.2 Feed (Preliminary) Engineering
This is the second phase after the completion of the feasibility study for the 
project and goal setting. The phase of technical studies is no less serious 
than the first phase, but this phase of geometry is one of the most impor-
tant and most dangerous stages of engineering. The success of the whole 
project depends on the engineering study. Therefore, this stage depends 
on the consultant office’s specific experience in the type of project to be 
established. This study depends on the expertise of the engineering office, 
specifically in the project type where the experience of engineering proj-
ects varies depending on the kind of industrial project, whether it belongs 
to the petrochemical industries, oil and gas plant, power stations, or other 
industrial projects. 
The required quality depends on the size of the project at this stage. For 
example, in the case of small projects such as building apartments, offices, 
or a small factory, the phase of initial studies is the ability of the office to 
determine the gender construction of the building. Will the project require 
reinforced concrete, concrete, precast or pre-stressed, as this determines 
the type of system of construction by the different types accepted, such as 
using solid slabs, flat slab, or hollow blocks, as well as the choice of system 
installation of the building such as columns and beams or the use of frames 
or shear walls. 

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These alternatives will vary by the size of the building itself and the 
requirements of the owner. 
In the case of major projects, such as gathering people in a stadium 
or oil projects, the complexity of this phase increases with the interfer-
ence of the studies of spatial principles. You can study landscapes and 
the different ways for the settlement of the land and the soil types on 
site, which determines the types of foundations that should be used 
for such trade-offs between the use of shallow or deep foundations, for 
example. 
In the event of specialized projects, such as oil and gas projects, we need 
to study carefully the way to transfer the product and the differentiation 
among the alternatives in choosing the appropriate method. 
From above, it is clear that as a result of the seriousness of that stage, 
experienced personnel is critical, as well as the owner having the capability 
to follow up on the initial studies in order to achieve the goal of the project 
and link the elements, such as the studies of civil, mechanical, electrical, 
and chemical engineering. 
Generally, regardless of the size of the project, it must be based on the 
engineering preparation of the document to determine the requirements 
in the Statement of Requirement (SOR). The SOR contains the objective 
of the project and the needs of the owner and is an important document 
in the quality assurance system, as this document contains all the owner 
information.
The SOR is not only required for new projects or large-scale projects, 
but should also be used when making some modifications to the structure. 
In the case of a residential building, the owner should determine the num-
ber of floors required, the number of apartments on each floor, and the 
number of shops and any other useful requirements. 
Upon receipt of the engineering office, the study is based on the SOR 
and is presented in a document called the Basis of Design (BOD). Through 
this document, the Engineering Consulting office should clarify the code 
and specifications that will work in the design, as well as the equations 
that will be used. It should also name the computer software that will be 
used, the required number of copies of drawings, and the sizes of the draw-
ings. Additional information may be recalled, such as the information on 
weather, Met-ocean data, and survey data. This document will be reviewed 
in the same manner and, by this time, the owner will have determined the 
dates and number of revisions. 
At this stage, it is important to make sure that both the owner and 
the engineering office have the same concept and there is full agreement 
between all the technical aspects. 

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Feed Engineering should be sent any prepared drawings so that they 
can be reviewed and carried out. Note the specified period of time agreed 
upon in advance, then return the drawings to the engineering office of the 
owner. The comments shall be returned to the owner until it reaches the 
final stage. 
This phase may take months in the case of large projects and, therefore, 
the technical office and owner must have engineers who have experience in 
controlling costs and follow-up on time according to the schedule agreed 
upon in advance. The engineer is responsible for the cost, the estimated 
cost, and expected cost of the project and comparing them with what is in 
the feasibility study by the time we achieve the sequence stages. The esti-
mate cost accuracy will be increasing with time until we reach the end of 
the preliminary studies, where one can obtain the nearest possible resolu-
tions for the cost and time schedule. 
It is imperative that at this stage you should not lose sight of determin-
ing the way to maintain the building in the future. This is done by deter-
mining the project lifetime. It must define the rules of construction, type 
of structure, and method of maintenance, as the site of the project itself 
and the surrounding environment must be protected from weather, which 
reduces the cost of maintenance over time. We may choose protection sys-
tems by using stainless steel, for example, through a system of protection 
high costs at the beginning of construction with a periodic maintenance, 
which is simple with few costs. On the contrary, we can use a protec-
tion system with low capital cost, but it will be taken into account in the 
annual budgets as the annual inspection and maintenance cost is high. In 
addition to that, the study takes into account the importance of structure 
itself, its geographical location, and ease of maintenance work and this 
philosophy also applies to the initial selection of mechanical equipment. 
For example, we may need a machine turbine with a high initial cost of 
an annual cost with a simple return. You may choose the frequency of a 
machine with a simple initial cost where the annual cost is high. 
The importance of origin is the same and its mode of operation and 
maintenance affect the preliminary design. For example, in power stations 
and major projects you must ask whether it can fix the water tank or pro-
vide maintenance work and clean up. The answer to this question is a deci-
sion on whether an additional reservoir was needed.
If it’s not needed, other design principles must be decided on at that 
stage. So, this stage requires very high experience since any error could 
result in future problems after operation, which could put the project at 
heavy losses that could have been easily avoided by simple solutions with a 
low cost from the beginning. 

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