Project-ing towards the future in the Oil & Gas Industry

As an experienced project manager, I enjoy the fact that as a skillset we are constantly evolving, maturing and improving methodologies – regardless of the industry – but it’s certainly apparent in the Oil & Gas industry.  For me, stakeholder consultation and engagement is one of the biggest areas of development.   PMI obviously agree as they added Stakeholder Management as a Knowledge Area to their examination methodology.

Stakeholders are of huge relevance in Oil & Gas projects, from the Operators to Tier 1, Tier 2 contractors through to Regulatory bodies, Governments, NGO’s, Environmental groups…. the list goes on. The industry also recognises that it’s a privilege to operate within local communities, which is why it’s essential for operators and stakeholders to have honest conversations about major projects.

The risks are great in Oil & Gas projects and we need to manage those risks starting with the people involved.   One of the best ways to really understand and engage with your stakeholders is to ensure that you understand them to the best of your ability.    This happens with engagement, and more recently, collaboration. The newly formed ISO44001:2017 Collaborative business relationship management systems standard principally addresses a roadmap for establishing and managing collaborative relationships with suppliers (upstream), customers (downstream), partners (horizontal) and inter-department or function (internal) in order to generate benefits for all parties.

Find out more about how collaboration can assist project organisations and teams to drive organisational mind-set and culture in working and supporting one another towards success, as opposed to just delivering against contractual obligations.

PetroKnowledge have designed a number of Project Management and Risk Management courses in the Oil & Gas industry which identify and introduce how to use a structured approach to share resources, experience and skills supported by a method for creating, delivering and exiting relationships to deliver true Collaboration.

With collaboration, the results are enhanced likelihood of project success and delivery, while still supported by the traditional methods that we need to deliver against Time, Scope and Quality constraints.

To find out more about PetroKnowledge, and enrol on one of our training programmes, contact us here.