Project Management Techniques for North Sea Oil and Gas Drilling

This project analyzes the North Sea oil and gas drilling project undertaken by BP plc, focusing on project management techniques. It explores the use of work breakdown structures (WBS), Gantt charts, and the critical path method (CPM) in managing the project effectively. The project identifies various challenges faced, including operational and cost risks, budgeting risks, technology risks, regulation risks, and construction risks. A risk matrix is presented to assess the likelihood and impact of these risks. The analysis provides insights into the complexities of managing large-scale oil and gas projects, highlighting the importance of effective project management strategies to mitigate risks and ensure successful project outcomes. References are provided to support the analysis.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management: North Sea oil and gas drilling project
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
1. Overview of the project...............................................................................................................2
2. Discussion and appraise of project management techniques.......................................................2
3. Challenges faced during the project............................................................................................3
4. Risk matrix...................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Overview of the project
The paper mainly reflects on the “North Sea oil and gas drilling project” which is mainly
undertaken by BP plc which is one of the multinational oils and gas company that has its
headquarter in London, UK. As oil and gas is one of the crucial sources of energy which
generally helps in enabling people for maintaining proper standards of living. Due to a very long
history of oilfield exploration, North Sea boasts not only undertake oil and gas drilling project
but also helps in establishing tested legal framework. With the help of the project, it is found that
the country earned very much high amount of profit.
2. Discussion and appraise of project management techniques
It is found that project management techniques are helpful in managing the project quite
easily as well as effectively. The techniques that are utilized for undertaking North Sea oil and
gas drilling project by BP are mainly elaborated below:
Work breakdown structure: It is considered as one of the ways that is helpful in
organizing the entire work into smaller as well as manageable work pieces. With the help of
WBS, each of the task of the project is represented graphically that further helps in defining the
project scope into very much smaller parts such that the North Sea oil and gas drilling project
gets completed on time (Cagliano, Grimaldi and Rafele 2015). The main purpose of the WBS is
to minimize the complications of the project such that it oversees the tasks quite effectively.
Moreover, WBS tasks are very much measurable and therefore the project manager assigns
proper costs to each of the task of the project (Dohe and Pike 2018).
Gantt chart: A Gantt chart is one of the techniques that is considered to be very much
easier for successfully scheduling tasks and for tracking the project progress against the deadline

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of the project. With the help of Gantt chart, the progress of North Sea oil and gas drilling project
can be easily identified. It is found that utilization of Gantt chart helps in improving
communication as well as team cohesion and generally helps in measuring the progress of the
project (Wren 2018). Additionally, Gantt charts helps in providing much more clarity by
developing proper understanding about the progress of the project.
Critical path method: It is considered as one of the cornerstones of PM technique that
helps in constructing a project model which includes a number of tasks. With the help of the
provided information, one can be able to calculate the longest path including the earliest start,
early finish, late start and late finish without creating much impact on the project schedule
(Kaiser, El Arbi and Ahlemann 2015). The tasks that generally falls along the critical path
generally helps in impacting the ability of the company for completing the entire project on time.
3. Challenges faced during the project
While undertaking the project “North Sea oil and gas drilling project”, the company BP
plc faces a lot of challenges as well as issues which are mainly elaborated below:
Operational and cost risks: It is found that operational costs generally fluctuate as per
the environment, regulations as well as different other factors. In order to undertake North Sea
oil and gas drilling project, difficult drilling process are needed that generally need high cost for
the equipment and other types of regulatory conditions (Ahiaga-Dagbui et al. 2018).
Additionally, finding as well as retaining the qualified workers is considered another challenge
especially during the peak time that can enhance the payroll effectively.
Budgeting risk: Budgeting risk generally arises due to a number of uncertainties within
the extraction procedure including the drilling or difficult terrains. Even if the oil and gas

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company generally invest properly, it is needed to fluctuate on the oil and gas demand that
generally create negative impact on the revenue. Moreover, inadequate oil production can
generally put a number of constraints on the operating budget of oil and gas drilling project that
is conducted by BP.
Technology risk: As the technology within the oil and gas industry keeps on changing
therefore it is needed to reduce risk as well as increase revenues. If the project managers do not
invest in new technology then it may cause a number of issues while drilling that further needs
additional costs (Gates et al. 2017). Therefore, the managers need to consider different types of
benefits as well as limitations for properly upgrading various types of technologies.
Regulation risk: The regulations generally varies from one region to different as it
happens due to a number of changes within the policies, taxes as well as mining quota. It is
found that shift within the political wind in UK can generally lead to a number of challenges
within the regulation that further affects the production cost which further can impact the
companies effectively (Robinson and Morgan 2016).
Construction risk: It is found that due to collapsing of structures, accidents as well as
delays, a number of challenges occur during the entire construction procedure. Factors including
material defects, natural disasters, meeting safety requirements that generally can create huge
impact on the budget and time of the project (Murray et al. 2018). Therefore, construction risks
are considered higher when risky procedure are used during the North Sea oil and gas drilling
project.

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4. Risk matrix
A risk matrix is a matrix that is mainly utilized during the procedure of risk assessment
for defining the risk level by properly considering the category of likelihood as well as
probability against the consequences that the risks occur.
Risk Likelihood Impact
Operational and cost risks Likely Moderate
Budgeting risk Very likely Significant
Technology risk Possible Moderate
Regulation risk Possible Moderate
Construction risk Likely Severe
Impact
Likelihood
Negligible Minor Moderate Significant Severe
Very
likely
Budgeting
risk
Likely Operational
and cost
risks
Construction
risk
Possible Technology
risk,
Regulation
risk

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Unlikel
y
Very
unlikely

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References
Ahiaga-Dagbui, D.D., Love, P.E., Whyte, A. and Boateng, P., 2017. Costing and technological
challenges of offshore oil and gas decommissioning in the UK North Sea. Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, 143(7), p.05017008.
Cagliano, A.C., Grimaldi, S. and Rafele, C., 2015. Choosing project risk management
techniques. A theoretical framework. Journal of Risk Research, 18(2), pp.232-248.
Dohe, K. and Pike, R., 2018. Integration of project management techniques in digital projects.
In Project management in the library workplace (pp. 151-166). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Gates, A.R., Benfield, M.C., Booth, D.J., Fowler, A.M., Skropeta, D. and Jones, D.O., 2017.
Deep-sea observations at hydrocarbon drilling locations: contributions from the SERPENT
Project after 120 field visits. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography, 137,
pp.463-479.
Kaiser, M.G., El Arbi, F. and Ahlemann, F., 2015. Successful project portfolio management
beyond project selection techniques: Understanding the role of structural
alignment. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp.126-139.
Murray, F., Needham, K., Gormley, K., Rouse, S., Coolen, J.W., Billett, D., Dannheim, J.,
Birchenough, S.N., Hyder, K., Heard, R. and Ferris, J.S., 2018. Data challenges and
opportunities for environmental management of North Sea oil and gas decommissioning in an
era of blue growth. Marine Policy, 97, pp.130-138.
Robinson, C. and Morgan, J., 2016. North Sea Oil in the Future: economic analysis and
government policy. Springer.

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Wren, A., 2018. Project Management AZ: A Compendium of Project Management Techniques
and How to Use Them: A Compendium of Project Management Techniques and How to Use
Them. Routledge.