Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry

7.7 Total Building Commissioning System
This system is very important in oil and gas projects. However, those in the 
oil field are more familiar in commissioning and there are many profes-
sionals in this area, but they apply in the start-up of a project to be a link 
between the projects staff and operations staff. In fact, the USA applies this 
system for normal buildings to formulate the team responsible for com-
missioning from the engineering phase until the operation phase.
Per our discussion in Section 7.6, in some cases the operation is not 
satisfied with the project output. The optimum solution is to apply a “total 
building commissioning system,” which is already applied in the USA for 
residential, administration, commercial, and public buildings.
Historically, the term “commissioning” has referred to the process by 
which the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems of a 
building were tested and balanced according to established standards prior 
to acceptance by the building owner.
Today’s use of commissioning recognizes the integrated nature of all 
building systems’ performance, which impacts sustainability, workplace 
productivity, occupant safety, and security.
In the USA, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), through 
its Public Buildings Service (PBS), manages buildings that house over a 
million federal associates and has an on-going planning, design, and con-
struction program to meet the federal customers’ housing needs.
PBS’ project delivery program is the vehicle for transforming our cus-
tomer agencies’ vision into reality. The built environment for the nation’s 

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public buildings, including courthouses, federal office buildings, laborato-
ries, and border stations, in turn shapes the communities and landscape in 
which they reside.
In our case the engineering team in the owner company will have the 
same responsibility as GSA.
The National Conference on Building Commissioning has established 
an official definition of ‘Total Building Commissioning’ as follows:
“Systematic process of assuring by verification and documentation, 
from the design phase to a minimum of one year after construction, 
that all facility systems perform interactively in accordance with the 
design documentation and intent, and in accordance with the owner’s 
operational needs, including preparation of operation personnel.”
What we need here is to have a wide definition of “total facilities com-
missioning,” which would refer to any discipline activity sharing in the 
project.
With my experience in the major projects in the engineering phase, the 
engineering company worries about man-hours and approves the bill and 
all the engineering disciplines focus on the design matching with the stan-
dard and specification demanded by the owner. On the other hand, the 
owner’s representative engineering staff focuses on the deliverable of the 
engineering, which is strong, technically, and matches with the standard 
and specification. In reality, it will be a representation of operations in the 
engineering group, but unfortunately one or four is not enough and with 
the time that will be focused on technical issues, the only objective will 
switch to being the engineer within standards and to finish the review cycle 
on the time as the direct manager is focused on cost and time. The project 
needs a separate entity always looking to the owner requirements.
Below is information from the GSA document, tailored and changed to 
be match our needs in oil and gas and other industrial projects.
• Philosophy provides GSA’s definition and expectations for 
commissioning.
• Building Commissioning Process details the consider-
ations, practices, and recommendations for commissioning 
along the GSA project process including Planning, Design, 
Construction, and Post-Construction Stages.
• Appendices provide samples, tools, definitions, and 
links to further resources for additional information on 
commissioning.

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Project Management in the Oil and Gas Industry