The ECITB’s Project Collaboration Toolkit has been praised as “an extremely valuable resource”, helping to reduce risk and driving value by the developers behind a major subsea project.
The ECITB’s Project Collaboration Toolkit has been praised as “an extremely valuable resource”, helping to reduce risk and driving value by the developers behind a major subsea project.
Buzzard Phase II has developed new reserves and brought new production in an area around 62 miles north-east of Aberdeen. Delivered by an ‘Alliance’ led by CNOOC together with its supply chain partners AGR, Baker Hughes/GE, COSL, Subsea 7 and Worley, the ECITB’s toolkit was used to help create an integrated, collaborative and outcome-focused approach to project delivery.
The project targeted first oil in 2020 but was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Forties Pipeline System shutdown, which was deferred into 2021. By working collaboratively using guidance from the toolkit, the Alliance revised their project schedule, and were able to minimise the impact of delays and costs associated with the pandemic. Analysis of the project, just published by the Alliance and the ECITB, finds this new approach saw work completed ahead of the revised schedule and brought appreciable cost savings of between five and ten percent compared to the traditional model of contracting.
ECITB Chief Executive Chris Claydon said: “Congratulations to all those involved in Buzzard Phase II, which provides another great example of how collaborative working can really enhance the outcome of a major project.
“The ECITB’s Project Collaboration Toolkit is a great product with a proven track record. I’m delighted to hear it has helped establish the collaborative working behaviours underpinning this key project, which will contribute to our domestic energy security,” Chris said.
“I would encourage use of the Project Collaboration Toolkit beyond oil and gas, as it is applicable throughout all other UK industry sectors, and we’re keen to share the benefits of collaboration in project delivery on all sorts of capital projects.”
Scott Robertson, Director of Operations, North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), said: “It was very encouraging to see the ECITB Project Collaboration Toolkit being put to such good use by CNOOC and its partners on Buzzard Phase II.
“They provided a great example of operators and suppliers collaborating on innovative and incentivised commercial models to deliver success in the face of major challenges, brought on by Covid-19.
“The pursuit of value-adding contracting strategies in the early stages of projects is a pillar of the NSTA’s Supply Chain Action Plans and our Supply Chain Stewardship Expectation, which outlines how companies should engage with the service sector.”
The Project Collaboration Toolkit, now in its 2nd edition, offers a practical ‘go-to’ guide aimed at supporting and benefitting projects through improved collaboration and smarter ways of working across the engineering construction industry. The original toolkit was developed following the publication of the Wood Report in 2014, which advocated greater collaboration in the oil and gas sector. Results from early adopters – such as Apache’s Callater Field and Shell’s Brent Bravo – have already demonstrated that collaboration boosts productivity and leads to significant cost savings.
