Project organization phase

2.8.1 Introduction

The project Organisation Phase represents an intermediate phase inbetween the phases of concept definition and construction. Note that detail design is part of the construction phase.

During the project organisation phase the construction work (fabrication) is prepared. Several fundamental principles of technical nature have therefore to be clarified during this phase.

2.8.2 Contract

A contract for the construction phase has to be established in this phase. Included herein is choice of type of contract. The following definitions can be used for important tasks during the construction phase:

E Engineering work (detail design)

P Procurement

C Construction

I Installation

The contract for construction can include one or more of these tasks. For construction of offshore concrete structures the normal contract form has been to select one contractor for the whole work, i.e. an EPCI-contract. In some cases, though, the oil company has separated the

Main Mechanical Outfitting work (MMO-work) from this contract and placed that part of the scope with a separate mechanical contractor. This split of contract implies that the oil company has to co-ordinate the concrete and mechanical contractors.

In other cases the detail design is also assigned to a separate design contractor. The advantage is that more contractors can tender for construction after the completion of the detail design work. The drawback is that this leaves the oil company as responsible for assuring that the detail engineering is performed properly and that the design is constructable, and issued in due course. Any changes may lead to claims for costly change orders.

Most of the arguments lead to the preference of one EPCI-contract for detailed design and construction of an offshore concrete structure. Such a contract puts the responsibility on one contractor. The oil company has in advance qualified the tendering contractors. The judgement regarding qualifications are based on technical competence, experience and financial strength. Of special importance is to have documented that the project can be performed according to schedule.

With such a comprehensive contract format as described above, it is of paramount importance that the contract clarifies essential relations between the oil company and the contractor. This applies to inter alia:

• list of specifications according to which the work shall be performed

• required detailing of contractor’s documentation and work, including detailed specifications of the basis for the work and requirements for co-operation with the oil company. Especially, it is regarded important that the oil company has the right to take direct control over the amount of reinforcement (payment by unit rate)

• requirements for efficient organisation of contractor’s work, to ensure that safety, environment, cost and progress are secured. Included in this is clear definitions of “who to do what” in contractor’s organisation, and of which subcontractors be accepted and how they are managed

• requirements to contractor’s technical know-how, including requirements to the involved persons. Special requirements must be set to contractor’s technical management and their co-ordination of the technical work

• requirements to the contractor’s internal control

• requirements to co-operation between the contractor, the oil company and the consultant performing the third party verification, including agreement with the contractor as to how comments from the third part verification shall be duly incorporated

• procedures for reporting of results, progress, problems and deviations

• agreement of milestones for revisions, and agreement of the oil company’s right to claim revisions as and when it finds it necessary. This also applies to revisions of subcontractors

• agreement on commercial relations.

Special emphasis is to be made such that the contractor shall follow the Concept Report issued by the oil company during the concept definition phase. It is assumed that the oil company has established a thorough concept report which includes:

• robustness to withstand minor changes in the design basis, for instance increased weight of the topsides within ±5%

• “forgiveness” to avoid major changes to the concept, if minor omissions are made in the concept definition phase which lead to changes in dimensions and weight.

This does, however, not mean that safety margins shall be applied beyond the requirements of the national rules and standards. Arrangements must be laid down in the contract to ensure that all changes to the concept report shall be agreed by the oil company and treated according to specially agreed procedures.

During contract preparation and negotiations it is important that the oil company’s project group has high technical expertise and long administrative experience.

2.8.3 Quality assurance plan

During the Project Organisation Phase the oil company must prepare a plan for how to perform quality assurance of the work during detail engineering and construction. As to procedures and some available tools for quality assurance, see Chapter 6.

2.8.4 Verification plan

A plan for verification has to be developed. The plan shall include:

• description of the extent of work for the verification, emphasising special critical areas of the structure

• requirements to the oil company’s own verification of contractor’s work, with description of the follow-up work during the detail design and construction activities

• requirements to the contractors’ internal quality control and surveillance

• working methods and work description valid for the consultant performing the third party verification

• requirements for prompt implementation of the results from the verification.

The choice of strategy for external verification is of special importance. The oil company must have direct contact with the third party verification consultant. Payment should be made according to spent hours within agreed limitations. Chapter 7 details two models for external verification:

1. the oil company submits the results from the verifying consultant to the contractor

2. company is managing the verification, but the verification consultant communicates mainly directly with the contractor.

Regardless of which model is followed, the verifying consultant is obliged to follow a tight schedule not to delay the progress of the contractor. The oil company must take all formal decisions in case disagreements arise between the contractor and the third party verificator.

The oil company should also be the single point contact with the authorities and the partners.

2.8.5 Preparation for the organization of the construction phase

During the process of preparing for a development project, project organisations are built up within the oil company and the contractor. The oil company is to ensure that both his own personnel and those of the contractor have the acceptable competence. This is partly done by specifying competence requirements for every leading position in the project. Every leader must have thorough knowledge of the technical content of the activity he is meant to lead. It is presupposed that the project is organised to assure openness with respect to technical questions, and that the requirements for quality in performance is characterising the dialogues and feed backs. No project philosophy which suppresses technical problems should be allowed In offshore field development projects, key persons who have worked during earlier phases in the same project should be brought in, so that continuity in the technical work is maintained.

All staff in a project must agree to the project’s goals and the procedures applied to reach these goals.

References

Fjeld, S. and Morely, C.T. (1983) Offshore Concrete Structures, in Handbook of Structural Concrete. Eds Kong, F.K., Evans, R.H., Cohen, E. and Roll, R, McGraw Hill.

Norwegian Council for Building Standardisation, NBR (1999) Specification texts for building and construction, NS 3420, Oslo, Norway, 2^nd edition 1986, 3^rd edition 1999.

Norwegian Council for Building Standardisation, NBR (1998), Concrete Structures, Design rules. NS 3473, 4th edition, Oslo, Norway, 1992 (in English), 5th edition 1998 (English edition in print).

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, NPD, Rules and Regulations for Petroleum Activities, New edition issued every year by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Stavanger, Norway.

Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, NPD (1992) Regulations relating to loadbearing structures in the petroleum activities, stipulated by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Stavanger, Norway.

Tjelta, T.I., Aas, P.M., Hermstad, J. and Andenæs, E. (1990) The skirt piled Gullfaks C platform installation. Paper OTC 6473. Proceedings Offshore Technology Conference, pp.

453–462, Houston, Texas.