Aker Kvaerner gives the contractor perspective

David Paganie
Managing Editor

STAVANGER, Norway -- Dag Jenssen, president of Aker Kvaerner's Deep Water Business Unit, addressed deepwater and arctic challenges at the opening plenary session today at DOT in Stavanger, Norway.

The theme of Jenssen's presentation was HSE. He noted specific issues in the arctic. "The winter darkness in the arctic should be taken seriously," he said. Pointing out that work is limited and search and rescue is difficult in this environment. "Evacuation is a major issue," he stressed. With icy conditions in the arctic, it's difficult to quickly bring in a boat to carry out an evacuation, he said.

Later he talked about design issues for deepwater and arctic technology. "Service life and wellstream properties are critical for the design basis of a field development plan," he said. "But the installation program is the key to the entire project."

Jenssen cited four reasons that projects fail:

1) Lack of senior management
2) Lack of relevant experience
3) Lack of forecasting in terms of skills and tools needed
4) Lack of quality when estimating the duration of critical activities.

"To make a project work, you have to invest time in the project execution," he said. "And you have to do things right in the project's FEED stage."

His recommendations for a successful project execution include:

• Front-end focus cannot be overestimated
• Learn from others
• Add more staff
• Stick with proven methods and technology
• Make sure the contracting model is valid through the duration of the project.

10/10/2007