New Project : First Day

Project Background

The Owner (who shall be nameless) has awarded LSTK contract to build gas storage.  The contractor’s work will be supervised by a PMC (nameless again), who has also prepared the FEED. The Contractor (of course nameless) has outsourced Detailed Engineering, because it is not his strength.  I will be playing a key role in assisting and advising the Detailed Engineering Contractor (DEC)

First Meeting

I explained my responsibility and the authority I need.

The team is yet to be fully assembled. Piping, Civil and Electrical engineers are on board. Instrument engineer has been identified. Process engineer’s resume in hand and looks promising; will interview tomorrow.

We have a copy of the standard to which the engineering shall mandatorily comply. But it is an older edition. New version to be procured and made available to all team members.

Tried to work on a list of “milestones” and the overall schedule, but interrupted by the Contractor, who wanted to meet urgently. So we dropped everything, grabbed a hasty lunch and went for the meeting downtown.

Meeting with Contractor

Contractor wants us to take up on priority 14 documents required for PESO approval. He provided us samples from a previous project.

Contractor asked us to formally request for soft copies from FEED, but provided no assurance that PMC will oblige. If not, we will have to redraw, increasing our effort and chances of error.

Contractor has not costed for piling, but it cannot be ruled out. It will depend on soil investigation study to be undertaken asap. Report will be known in min 4 weeks. Piling will significantly add to both cost and schedule.

Detailed Engineering will be impacted by vendor information and we are concerned if Contractor will place timely orders, though not called for from delivery point of view. Contractor assuaged our fear , but I am not personally convinced it will happen.

Contractor will provide soft copies of documents from a similar project to facilitate our work. Sometimes it is better to start afresh than reuse and own an old document.

Contractor has already prepared a barricading drawing assuming a layout, which apparently violates PESO guideline.  Owner is coaxing him towards this.

Risk Summary

1)      Piling?

2)      PESO approval

3)      Timely ordering for vendor information

4)      Availability of FEED Soft Copy.