Oil Companies, in general, have similar decision processes for the development and approval of projects involving development steps with decision points - hurdles or gateways - at which the project is reviewed to seek approval to move on to the next step.
These steps can be characterized as:

IDENTIFY >> APPRAISE >> SELECT >> SANCTION >> ENGINEER >> BUILD

Focus Workshops

Workshops can be used to bring together all aspects of a development project, and provide an environ where the complete subject can be grasped and understood. In the earliest stages, much use is made of experience and professional judgement to identify decisions that can be made and weaknesses or risks to be mitigated by further actions.

The workshop also acts as a safe zone to provide a protected environment removing barriers to communication. It is also a reference point, which acts to collect, collate and integrate all the accumulated knowledge to date on the project. There are two main uses, at the start and end of each new stage as:
- a “direction” to ensure the planned stage activities embrace the full requirements
- to review the stage and present a consensus view for management decision.

Workshops for each stage

Identify / Appraise

Creative / Brainstorm - generate and analyze the development scenarios Screening - review studies undertaken and possible development routes

Select

Conceptual - expand development routes into schemes and options Select - review conceptual studies and select the main scheme and options

Sanction

Development - expand schemes into sub-options (equipment choices etc.) Design Review - Detailed PEER review of key design, P&IDs, Plot Plan etc.

Engineering

Value Engineering - optimize cost and risk Constructability / operability - optimize design for practicality Safety review - hazard analysis, hazop etc.

Build

Construction - optimize local conditions, training, motivation etc.

WORKSHOPS FOR CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

At the very early stages of developing the overall scheme for an Oil & Gas field there are a potentially wide range of possibilities. Whilst it is possible to very quickly identify a workable scheme it is more difficult to have confidence that this is the right scheme(s) or even a "good" scheme. Most of the influences will require subjective judgments - and there will be always be the possibility that the real winning scheme has been missed altogether. There are no guarantees with any process involving creativity.

However much of the "black art" of conceiving that initial scheme can be captured and conditions set which are conducive to both creating and tracking the development of the schemes. These conditions are best set in the format of the Value Engineering workshops - but with an emphasis firmly on creativity and not measurement.

Much of the traditional conceptual work requires at least three steps of generating ideas, filtering via feasibility reviews and the refining via various topic studies. A dedicated and well-selected team can accelerate these - with workshops at the core of the decision making steps. BaronNet envision three such steps - with workshops run along similar lines but becoming more focused and defined as the scheme(s) are developed.

The Creative Workshop

At the very beginning the team has little more to go on other than the attributes of the Prospect. Therefore it is essential that the Client and Consultant assemble a team of wide experience embracing all potential facets of the development. The team and the facilitator would move through three initial steps

- Ideas generation - totally unrestrained deductive reasoning
- Review of key influences and screening on judgment of team members
- Selection and weighting into a main scheme with options.

At this level we would be dealing only with the major blocks of processing, structures etc which identifies the work which the team must then undertake to assemble the next level of information about the scheme(s). Subsequent to the workshop team members are actioned to better define the scheme options, costs, technical merits etc

Screening Workshop

Now the team (essentially the same as for the first workshop) will step through the potential scheme(s) but with the benefit of additional technical and cost data. The review objective is to select the most favorable scheme and identify the possible matrix of technical and cost acceptable solutions for further study.

Subsequent to this workshop the team will carry out studies aimed at the confirming technical feasibility, assessing uncertainties and risks, testing sensitivities and developing budget level cost estimates. The results of these are used to assess all of the key issues, develop the transformation factors and create a ranking of the various options.

Conceptual Workshop

At an appropriate point the new data resulting from the screening exercise can be developed a step further. A Conceptual workshop can used to bring together the schemes and options - with the technical and cost assessments, the rankings, etc. These are subjected to the same three steps.
- Ideas, re-work the logic to look for missed opportunities and consider 'elements' within the blocks.
- Key influences and importance check ranking factors and quantify rankings.
- Selection and definition of the preferred scheme and its sub-options, identify uncertainties and actions

The output from this is a technical and cost acceptable scheme, ready to start the full process / concept design with the full concept studies. At the conclusion of which, a further workshop - more in the "review" style than creative - can be used to "select" the main scheme and any primary options to carried forward. The outcome from this workshop is a "decision" with full supporting and documented selection criteria.