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ONE
PROJECT, FOUR PLAYERS, ONE COMMON INTERFACE
Bjørn Rosland
Lead planner, Statoil
In February 2005, the Norwegian government approved
Norway’s largest oil and gas operator Statoil’s plans for a conversion
of its three platforms, A, B and C, on the Statfjord field in
the North Sea. The idea is to prolong the production life for
this field in order to recover remaining oil and gas reserves.
The project has been named Statfjord late-life, and is a labour-intensive
project with many players, which places stringent demands on project
management.
In addition to being Statoil’s first late-life
project, this is also a pioneer project in another sense. For
the first time, a developer and all contractors involved are using
Safran to manage their activities for their common project. For
lead planner Bjørn Rosland at Statoil, having a copy of the different
databases in our local separate database, is a great advantage:
“First of all, this means that we are able to communicate effortlessly
and share project information across our common interface. Secondly,
through Safran we can engage in discussions and problem solving
in a manner that we only dreamed of before. But most importantly,
we can now be confident that our contractors are using a reliable
project management tool that we understand.”
Statfjord is one of the oldest and
largest oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Discovered by Mobil
(now ExxonMobil) in 1974, the field has been operated by Statoil
since 1987. It has already yielded four billion barrels of oil
and generated over USD 150 billion in revenues during its first
quarter of century.
Currently producing oil with associated
gas, the field installations are to be converted to handle gas
with associated oil. This will raise the recovery factor on Statfjord
to almost 70 per cent of the oil originally in place and 75 per
cent of the gas, and keep the field producing towards 2020. This
is at the top of the tree for recovery in world terms, with experts
estimating that gas recovery without the project would be 53 percent.
In addition to the conversion of
the platforms, the late-life project calls for the construction
of a new gas export facility to the UK. A 23.1- kilometre pipeline
called the Tampen Link will be laid from Statfjord B to the Flags
transport system, which runs from Britain’s Brent field near Statfjord
to St Fergus in Scotland. The pipeline is due to be laid in 2006/2007
and be ready for gas export on 1 October 2007.
Injecting gas and water to maintain
reservoir pressure has been an important element in the present
production strategy for the field. Combined with an extensive
programme of drilling wells to tap remaining oil pockets, injection
has helped to push the recovery factor much higher than expected
when development began. By reducing pressure in the reservoirs
and on the platforms, large volumes of previouslyinjected gas
can be recovered. Gas will also be released from the remaining
non-recoverable oil.
Integration.
Bjørn Rosland is Statoil’s lead planner for the late-life project,
coordinating resources and contractors with the existing Statfjord
operations. “Originally the late-life project was to be managed
by the Statfjord operations department, with the A, B and C teams
each handling the conversion processes for their own platform.
However, in order to benefit from the synergy effects arising
from handling all three projects as one, it was finally decided
to organise the conversion as a separate project covering all
three platforms,” he explains.
For this project, the late-life team
has to cooperate very closely with the Statfjord operations department
to coordinate the latelife project with the ongoing activities
on the platforms. One of the major challenging relating to this
is the fact that the Statfjord department is using SAP and the
late-life team is using Safran to plan their activities.
“Our intention is to make it possible
to transfer data electronically between SAP and Safran. The technology
exists and Safran’s management is eager to incorporate it in their
project management software,” Bjørn Rosland says.
Cross-contract
coordination. The modification work will take place while
the platforms continue normal operations. This means that much
of the work has to be done in two to three hectic weeks in the
summer of the coming years, during the annual maintenance turnaround.
“Our job is to work closely with the Statfjord operations team
to make sure that the late-life activities do not interfere with
the production,“ Rosland says. The late-life project comes on
top of the dayto- day operations on the platforms, and it will
infl uence the production and drilling work on the platforms.
| “Through Safran we can engage
in discussions and problem solving in a manner that we only
dreamed of before.” |
Modifications on the Statfjord platforms
will be pursued in two phases, with the first of these running
from the autumn of 2005 to the second half of 2007. This will
embrace installation of gas lift and sand control in a number
of wells as well as upgrading of topside HSE standards (Health,
Environment and Safety) and technical condition, including in
the drilling facilities.
Due to extend from the autumn of
2007 to the end of 2009, phase two involves conversion of production
equipment to receive and treat oil and gas under lower pressure.
The drilling programme will also continue. The scope of the
modification work is put at roughly three million working hours
offshore and three million engineering hours on land in addition
to some prefabrication.
Following the government approval
of the project, Statoil proceeded to award the construction
contracts. In the spring of 2005, Aker Kvaerner was contracted
to perform modification work on Statfjord B and C. The contract
to perform modifications on the Statfjord A platform was awarded
Vetco Aibel. Finally Smedvig won a contract to modify the drilling
facilities on the B and C installations.
All three contractors are using project
management software from Safran for this project, and it is
the first time that Statoil has undertaken a project where the
corporation and its contractors are using the same project management
software. Rosland emphasizes, however that it was not a prerequisite
for being awarded the contract that the contractors use Safran.
“Our experience from the Snøhvit
development project where one of our main contractors was using
Prima Vera, has nevertheless made us very relieved that our
current contractors are using Safran. Getting all involved parties
to communicate without hassle is one of the potential bottlenecks
of a project of this size. All three contractors are responsible
for their own interface and for planning their own work. Our
job is to coordinate their schedules across the contracts to
ensure on-time delivery and to provide information on what deliverables
are needed and at what time, as well as who the suppliers and
recipients are,” Rosland explains.
Cross-contract coordination means
monitoring for instance the schedules for the drilling operations
versus Smedvig’s shedule for modifications on the drilling facilities.
To optimize control, both involved parties must have the same
interface in their plan, where they both build up a sequence
of events that lead up to a milestone, which can be coordinated
with the milestones for the other player. “Safran is ideal for
these kinds of planning scenarios, and the situation that we
are in right now where all three contractors are using Safran
as well is a dream come true for a project manager. I know they
are using a reliable tool, and it makes planning so much easier
when I can import their data directly into our overall schedule.”
Critical phases.
In a project of this size and scope, the main focus of the project
manager has to be on coordinating resources and working to ensure
that the progress is being made in the right areas at all times.
For the late-life project, the critical
phases are the shut-down periods. “Normally, the drilling and
production work on the platforms is shut down for two weeks
every other year. But for the duration of this conversion project,
the platforms will be shut down for a three week period every
year. It goes without saying that in order to maintain full
production on an annual basis despite this increase in the number
of shut-down periods, this project must be managed with every
single detail in mind. Coordination is extremely important.
We must have a detailed schedule that ensures, for instance,
that the drilling crew has completed its activities and checked
out before the late-life teams arrive to perform modification
work on the drilling facilities. It is important on more than
one level too – both in terms of making accommodation available
for the late-life teams, and in terms of the actual modification
work that needs to be done,” Rosland explains.
To maintain strict control of the
project status, the lead planner makes extensive use of the
histogram features in Safran’s project management software to
monitor progress and utilization of resources and accommodation.
The schedules from the contractors are imported into our overall
schedule. The most important activities on each platform are
summarized into the master schedule.
Some of the work is pre-fabricated
on shore and transported to the platforms for installation,
but a lot of the work must be performed on site, and this makes
coordination equally important.
Drilling and production must be shut
down before the so-called hot work can commence. This includes
welding, grinding and other potentially fire hazardous activities.
With a quick look at the overall schedule in Safran, the late-life
team is able to get information fast if there is a confl ict
in the schedules for all the operations.
Progress reports.
The oil and gas industry in the North Sea has experienced some
dramatic incidents over the past few years, involving both people
and the environment. The main focus for Statoil will therefore,
as always during complex projects like this, be on imposing
the strictest possible HSE regulations. “This is always Statoil’s
priority number one. Coordinating resources to ensure the best
possible utilization of personnel and equipment is another great
challenge,” says Rosland. “Statoil is a very large company,
we have to set a standard where environmental issues are concerned.
It’s important that we put safety and the environment first
because we are compelled to be a role model.”
Having learned from previous project
management outcome, the current late-life project has more focus
on both HSE related issues and on detailed monitoring of the
execution of activities. Rosland emphasises the need for providing
information to the management to facilitate trend analyses,
for example on progress, productivity, efficiency, as well as
fl oat trend analyses that provide insight into whether the
right activities are in progress or not at any given time.
“We aim at focusing our analyses
on both volume progress and sequence progress. It is important
for us to ensure that our contractors make the right priorities
with regards to the sequence of their operations. Progress is
only of value if it’s made on the basis of activities that need
to be accomplished now, not in 6 months. When the piping crew
arrives, for instance, and the pipes still haven’t been made,
being ahead of the progress schedule is of minor relevance,“ Rosland
explains.
To facilitate better monitoring of
the sequence of activities, Rosland has suggested that Safran
incorporate an improved fl oat trend analysis feature in coming
versions of Safran, and plans for developing the software to include
this feature exist. For the people at Safran, such input from
the end users is invaluable. Bjørn Rosland praises the cooperation
and support from the Safran professionals. “They always listen
to suggestions for improvements and additional functionality that
is of benefit to us, the users,” he says.
| “They always listen to suggestions
for improvements and additional functionality that is of
benefit to us, the users.” |
Standard planning
tool. In addition to using Safran Project to manage long-term
and complex projects such as the late-life project, Statoil
has installed Safran Planner on all 18,000 desktops throughout
the organisation. Safran Planner is a corporate planning tool,
and more and more people from a range of departments in the
company are using it every day.
As Bjørn Rosland explains: “Previously,
a number of different tools were used for planning purposes,
ranging from PowerPoint, Excel and Milestone to Microsoft Project,
even Word was used to make schedules and bar charts, or hand-written
notes for that matter. All of these methods were extremely time-consuming.
When we implemented Safran Planner, the number of users escalated
to over 5,000 within a few months, and this is an impressive
number compared with our previous experience with planning tools.”
The implementation of Safran Planner
called for some end user assistance to help Statoil employees
get familiar with the software and to ensure best possible utilization
of the features in Safran Planner. Based on a “Getting started”
programme developed by Safran, Bjørn Rosland worked out a self-training
programme designed to ensure a more unified usage of the tool
throughout Statoil.
In their day-to-day work related
activities, Statoil employees make use of Safran to plan their
projects by setting up a graphic overview of their activities.
To illustrate the wide range of projects that can be handled
by Safran Planner, Rosland refers to the process a few years
back when Statoil became listed on the stock exchange. A separate
project team was appointed to manage the listing process, and
to assist the team, Bjørn Rosland introduced them to Safran
Planner. “I helped them set up their plan, guided them with
instructions as to how to use the tool, and they followed these
instructions slavishly. When the project was successfully completed,
the project team said that if they hadn’t followed the schedule
in Safran Planner so closely, they would never have been able
to finish on time with such a tight schedule.”
A tool for
the future. Bjørn Rosland is convinced that Statoil has
benefited immensely from implementing Safran Planner. “The main
benefit is that now everyone has a much better understanding
of the value of planning in general. We have a huge number of
users of Safran Planner, working within all departments and
professions, not just development projects but also groups within
the IT department and the finance department, for instance.
Despite the obvious success that
Safran’s project management software has enjoyed and still is
enjoying, some people still prefer to hold on to existing and
familiar tool. In Rosland’s view, many people don’t see the
true value of presenting and managing their activities in a
sophisticated and professional way. The way you present the
schedule is a question of winning or losing out.
“If you don’t have a professional
planning tool and a proper schedule that is easily accessible
to the audience, you won’t be able to sell your project. For
departments and teams that are working towards partners and
licensees, it is extremely important to show the world that
we know what we’re doing, that we are on top of the situation.
In that respect, presenting partners with a pile of 100 pages
to show them that we are in control simply isn’t good enough.”
In order to make the best decisions
and to manage their businesses effectively, executives at all
levels need information, and having the right information available,
accessible in a convenient form and on a timely basis, is the
desire of managers at all levels. With Safran, planning teams
such as the late-life team at Statoil, finally have a tool that
allows them to make the right decisions and get the work done
– on time.
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