Critical Offshore Field Development Projects –Why Work Outside of Strict Timelines?

Abstract

Overcoming environmental challenges to develop offshore oil fields remains daunting for engineers who must balance economic feasibility with environmental protection, often within limited timelines before first oil commitments. A critical examination of Saudi Arabia's field development cases reveals a 56-year timeline (which seems interminable) between offshore field discovery in 1957 and realization of an environmentally friendly field development in 2013. If teams desire to accomplish Aegian projects with the sustenance of core values in perspective (whatever the core values might be), such as to gain the economic advantages of offshore projects while preserving the environment or honoring some other constraint, it is imperative to work with more robust timelines. Whereas strictly time-bounding projects may help with releasing adrenalin for performance, engineers may require adequate time for innovative concept designs to conduct necessary pilots and qualification. Collaboration between cross-functional project teams – construction, drilling, testing, and production – is examined from the economic delivery of several challenging wells under various environmental challenges and constraints. An overarching theme from each team was to apply environmental solutions. Colonization of hard coral species and presence of several fish species were observed on project completion. For example, a 70% increase in growth of Seagrass and artificial coral reefs was observed near the causeway built for the Manifa Field, which could become a hot spot of biodiversity. Water circulation, as measured by an acoustic doppler current profiler (ADCP) improved from 17 days before the project to 11 days on project completion. When engineers persevere, collaborate and have enough time to plan intensively until they find the technology solutions to advance, society benefits from an environmental return. As the worldwide study cases reveal, several projects are threatened globally because engineers may be unable to find viable solutions under rigid timelines. Often companies must be willing to wait until they acquire the technologies to responsibly advance complex environmentally sensitive projects. If timelines are flexible and sufficiently realistic, management's unwavering support to avail necessary resources would be critical for success.