This is a project that has been erected in one of the most isolated places in the universe. The plant is placed on the edge of the Rub al-Khali desert. The project was erected within six months before the allocated time. The project was completed with a 27 percent under budget. To achieve the project, well known project management processes and methodologies were applied (Haynes, 2004).
Several factors were used to measure the performance of the project. These factors included cost, and schedule. Also, quality and safety were used to measure the performance of the project (Haynes, 2004).
The gas plant has been designed in such away to expand the processing capacity of the plant in the region. This is to enable it to meet the increasing demand for the natural gas. The gas plant has an intake capacity of 1.6 billion standard cubic feet every day.
Also, the sales rate ranges from 1.5 cubic feet every day. These figures are high above the prevailing plants in the region. Compared with other projects the Haradh is a new generation plant.
It receives a sweeter and non-associated gas mixture. This gas mixture has the capability to produce large amounts of hydrocarbon condensate. This is with comparison with other plants that process only gas streams that are sour (Haynes, 2004).
The design of the Haradh gas plant is different from those in existence. In one way, the difference arises in the use of methydiethanolamine. This is used during the treatment of the gas. Also, the other difference occurs due to the incorporation of the high integrity protection systems.
The systems are used are used in the flare system of the plant. Finally there is the use of hydrocarbons thermal oxidizers. The thermal oxidizers are used to destroy the pollutants from the effluent gas. The designs were taken into consideration so as to cater for the environmental health. Also, the designs were geared towards reducing the energy consumption. In addition the design aimed at reducing the capital cost.
The integration of the new technology could interfere with the working program of the project. To avoid this from taking place the project team froze the design after a period of three months. The freezing process resulted to no loss or damage. Costs were controlled during this process.
This was through changing the order rate. The management was able to point out and prevent problems in advance. Also the managers concentrated on creating required work-around. In addition the managers were able to concentrate on the contingency plans (Haynes, 2004).
The procuring company uses a contracting philosophy of a lump-sum turnkey. This ensures that those given the contracts can work with the novated equipments.
They had a strategy of using one set of contractor in this project. This was to ensure that only one control system for the plant was installed. Novation has the advantage of eliminating long lead times (Haynes, 2004).
The contractor took a risk and reduced the procurement time. Besides this novation has enabled associated engineering activities to take off with immediate effect.
This is for the foundations and the calculation of the power loads. Also the utility loads have been taken care of. According to the estimates made by the contractor the project managed to save approximately four to six weeks at the time completion (Haynes, 2004).
A quality index was initiated to measure the compliance of a contractor. This is with specific quality deliverables. The deliverables include documentation and the manning levels. Also they include the qualifications. This is according to the quality control supervisor.
Senior engineers often chaired quality control meetings. The meetings were for their respective project divisions. The inspection teams and the quality control managers were supposed to avail themselves in these meetings.
Quality performance was addressed during these gatherings by the quality control managers. The managers were also able to address the outstanding quality problems. The gas plant project’s performance was always above the target. The target figure was 90% where the project was able to attain a final figure of 98% (Haynes, 2004).
The haradh gas project emerged with the best safety performance. This was due to its zero-accident and safety charter philosophy. Also the environmental and health philosophy had a part to play. No matter the working environment nor the conditions, affected the performance of the Saudi Armco’s performance.
A culture that valued safety had been developed within the working premises. This is despite the fact that a well equipped clinic had been constructed at the site. Qualified safety personnel had been employed to interact with the laborers. Full-time safety professionals with a lot of experience were also deployed in the site (Haynes, 2004).
For the sake of communication, Saudi Aramco used intranet. This was to enable them in maintaining the databases tracking project systems. Also, this was also to enhance maintaining the mechanical completions. In addition, this helped to maintain the facility turnovers. To keep control of the completions, there required proper management of the systems through the intra-based databases (Haynes, 2004).
For the sake of the future, on completion of each project phase workshops were conducted. In the workshop, a total of 300 lessons were learned. Also, the aspect of mentorship was practiced where the less experienced engineers partnered with the senior engineers. This was to enable them in developing a presentation on a different aspect of the plant (Haynes, 2004).
Reference List
Haynes, M. (2004). The Haradh gas plant builds on Saudi Aramaco’s past successes by utilizing the company’s core project management practices. London: Sage.