The Journey from Field Discovery to a Successful Asset
Authors: Lardi Peter 
Published: November 2015

Scope and Objectives

The gated project delivery process is virtually universally accepted in the Upstream Oil and Gas industry as the way to frame the workflows needed to convert a field discovery into an operating facility. IOCs and NOCs have now spent the last 25 years teaching their people and implementing systems, processes and procedures to execute this approach. Groups such as IPA and CII have provided a vast array of statistics and data to demonstrate the success or otherwise of the process. However, on many major projects the dream of efficiently and effectively going from a discovery to asset production in a way that maximises return on investment for the Asset Owner is still far from being realised.

The overall workflow from Field Discovery to subsequent Operations is too large to discuss in a short technical presentation. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper is to discuss experience gained in establishing and implementing workflows that efficiently and effectively complete the journey from Field Acquisition through Exploration, Assess, Select and FEED to establish the foundation for successful Execution and subsequent Operations.

Methods, Procedures and Process

By combining experienced people, robust workflows and appropriate technologies, some Asset Owners are getting closer to making the dream of "effectively transforming a discovery into a successful Asset" a reality.

It starts with clearly understanding the critical Asset Knowledge (Description) required to deliver a successful project. Next is the need to form a robust, experienced, integrated Project Management Team (PMT) and giving this team the authority, capability and tools to carry the Asset Knowledge from inception through to Operations. The PMT may need to utilise a Project Management Consultant (PMC) to have the necessary depth and breadth of capability.

Results, Observations and Conclusions

Experience gained by working with different Owners, in different countries, in different industries, in all phases of the asset life over the last 30 years has enabled WorleyParsons to develop a unique perspective on the Asset Life cycle. One of the observations is that the gated process, by definition, breaks the project delivery workflows. The impact of these breaks is often significant with loss of knowledge, loss of project momentum, increases in schedule, etc. Part of the solution is to implement two Key Success Factors (KSFs) that are discussed endlessly, but seldom practiced. Specifically, these are the following: Defining the information (Asset Knowledge) that is critical in each project phase and across life of Asset and making sure the workflows are in place to generate, validate, audit, communicate, apply, store, access, retrieve and manage the change of this knowledge across phase gates, geographies, contractual boundaries, organisations, people and time.The Owner putting in place a strong, experienced, integrated, empowered PMT (+ PMC) that is the custodian of the Asset Knowledge and proactively manages it from project inception to handover.

Benefit to Petroleum Industry

This paper shares insights gained into how to implement project delivery workflows with the supporting processes and tools that move us closer to the Asset Owner's dream of effectively managing his asset over its lifecycle and maximising his return on investment.