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What I learnt...working on a major oil and gas development project

I spent 6 months carrying out a management system assessment on a offshore facilities and subsea infrastructure development project.  The project had just passed the Financial Investment Decision stage and the operator (a global super-major) had a growing project team of circa 70 people working alongside the EPC contractor's team.

So what I learnt was:
  • a lot about the technical challenges and processes involved in getting oil and gas out of the ground.  For an accountant, and consultant, with a wide industry experience and a high level "head office" view of what actually happens in the oil field, this project provided a rapid deepening of my knowledge of how the upstream oil and gas industry works.
  • the challenge of getting a physically remote project team, staffed mainly with contractors, to comply with the global policies and standards as well as the fundamental role project leadership plays in meeting that challenge
  • for major development projects like this, the key role the future operations team plays in getting the design right and making sure that operations does not pick up the bill for decisions made for project delivery expediency

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