An Integrated Project and Risk Management Approaches for Value Maximization from a Smart Oil Field Integration Outlook
Authors: Alsaeedi A. , Soni S. , Albadi M. , Alharthi F. , Al Hammadi M. 
Published: October 2023

The Oil & Gas industry is witnessing rapid growth in emerging technological trends, which deliver big data application in integrated data driven approach. The critical success factors for such initiatives are driven by strategic alignment of business objective with project execution, such that stakeholder interest and ecosystem objectives, while delivering a practical and usable solution. This paper demonstrates one such initiative undertaken for a giant gas producing field, as part of its digital transformation.

The critical challenge prior to such implementation was ideation of a solution, which can address complexities involved in integrating vast amount of data available now and generated in long term. The need to meet production targets and monitoring of key KPIs on day-to-day basis, along with achieving short term and long-term business objective paved the way for implementation of a digital ecosystem. The implementation of solution was planned and executed with an advanced project management approach in an agile framework, focused on process efficiency, end-user requirements and stakeholder interests, while learning from the past and leveraging upon the emerging technology.

The defining phase prior to project initiation was identification of critical success criteria and user requirements, which set the way for a standardized solution identification based on design thinking. The traditional project phases were tailored with agile approach of solution development and design thinking approach for implementation which is actionable and effective. The detailed focused group discussion and functional design workshops assured alignment with user requirements, while the development was being set forth in a scrum framework. The agile approach assured user feedbacks were incorporated for customized feature development as per defined acceptance criteria. A key focus from beginning was on risk management at each phase and implementation stage. This assured identification and analysis of critical risks beforehand, while developing a strong risk response action. A solid stakeholder management and change management assured staying at per with planned scope and schedule, while responding to dynamic implementation process along with associated risk mitigation. The solution tenacity was reinforced by the information system alignment with a strong IT governance and infrastructure in place. The implementation with unique workflows and features such as intelligent alerts, exception-based surveillance workflows, business intelligence integration & dynamic reservoir integration assured user acceptance on a strong digital framework.

This tailored project management approach for a digital transformation opened the avenues for the asset to look further in the future to imbibe the emerging big data solutions, while addressing historical lesson learnt and associated challenges in a proactive fashion. The hybrid implementation process undertaken empowered the asset team to embark on the new risks and challenges while achieving asset's digitalization and business goals.