A3 Architecture Views – A Project Management Tool?

Although project management is widely used in the public sector, many projects still fail even when project management tools and practices are employed. Several studies show that a project's success depends partly on the project manager's competencies; however, there is little empirical research on this subject in the public sector. This study aims to analyze the significant characteristics linked with the competencies of the public sector project manager and outlines a profile of these professional competencies characteristics that can lead to the success of projects. Through empirical research conducted with 77 project managers from 32 public organizations in Brazil, this study examined the relationship between project managers' competencies and the likelihood that projects will succeed. Using factor analysis and logistic regression, we looked at factors like time, cost, quality, and scope to determine their relationship to the likelihood that projects will succeed. The findings highlight the importance of project management knowledge, communication abilities, attitudes relating to motivation, trust, and emotional intelligence, and most traits defining project managers in the public sector. The employee's length of service was the single factor that had a negative impact on the project's outcomes. This study contributes to the current knowledge of project managers' competencies in the public sector, showing the main characteristics a successful project manager needs to have and can help direct efforts in selecting a more suitable professional, contributing to the reduction of the turnover of the workforce and the consequent loss of knowledge of the organization.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly dealing with international projects and distributed (sometimes even virtual) teams. Consequently, they are looking for project management (PM) tools which fit their respective needs regarding communication and collaboration. Unfortunately, the majority of the PM software available in the market seems to be oversized for this purpose. Instead most project managers are requesting smart solutions that allow quick implementation without any significant organisational or technical change.
 Within the research project InterComp SME 2.0 we combine theoretical research and real business to develop hands-on solutions for SMEs. This paper describes an effective approach for a â??PM Toolboxâ? that allows finding the right project tool for a specific project need. The toolbox has been developed in due consideration of user stories gained from business practice, a more detailed SME business survey, a theoretical PM meta model and a market of PM tools.
 Since the business survey revealed that the readiness to use and test a â??toolboxâ? is highly dependent on the type of user and his or her technical background, we designed the system based on use cases and user typology. As a result, we suggest a framework of open, freely available, easy-to-install, single and multi purpose PM software tools which can be selected solely on a need basis. With this free platform we want to guide practitioners through the tool jungle with the potential to grow into a lively community.

Phased project management processes, also known as stage and gate management processes (SGMP), are widely used to macro and micro-manage projects from early evaluation, to sanctioning and close out. These tools tend to disassemble by discipline the activities and decisions disseminated along the life of a project and re-bundle them into standardized sequential phases, with the underlying intention to narrow down uncertainties and multiply the project value. By virtue of the implicit set of routines and checks, SGMPs have successfully brought a great deal of discipline in the allocation of human and financial capital among competing prospects – albeit not enough. Uncertainty is the scapegoat our industry too often resorts to to justify otherwise inexplicable failures. The variability embedded in the oil and gas business (nature, raw materials prices, etc.) undeniably plays to the detriment of our industry's bottom line but it is not the only delinquent in the game. Ultimately, opportunities are passed over on account of inappropriate assessment of the value of uncertainty and of acquiring the information (Value of Information, VOI) necessary to narrow it down. Finance-derived Real Options have long been proposed to guide investment decisions and overcome the limitations of NPV-based approaches. However, Real Options have failed to win proselytes because of undeniable mathematical complication and an ill-fated fame to be too volatile a concept to fit into 150-year old oil and gas industry. A novel approach is presented that complements the structured framework of SGMPs with VOI evaluation. The result is a project management tool that preserves the merits of SGMPs while warranting improved financial discipline.

As the success rate of international development projects might be still below expectations, several studies have explored whether and how the use of project management (PM) tools might improve internal and external project performance. This article looks specifically at four selected Central and Eastern European countries and evaluates a newly collected data set. Based on a survey, the study examines the adoption of PM tools among project managers in the region. Furthermore, with the use of cluster analysis, it suggests that the tools are adopted progressively in four stages that differ culturally from other international studies. Last but not least, using structural equation modelling, the research indicates that among the surveyed project managers, the use of stage 1 tools might directly contribute to the improvement of internal project results and that these internal results might then have a positive impact also on the external project performance.

The aim of the present study is to explore the risks and benefits of mergers compared to those of strategic alliances and test the classic agency theory in relation to firm’s and shareholders interest. Using the case study methodology, the study examines the recent announced merger of Halliburton and Baker Hughes exploring the possible risks the merger itself may open up for the two firms, reviewing a possible alternative strategic alliance and the effects it may have. The paper applies a qualitative analysis based on empirical data of similar case studies projecting past experiences on future events. The study concludes that the merger was in the best interest of both companies, a merger though filled with the risk of specialisation within a shrinking market still poses the best rate of survival for firms in the gas and oil industry. The paper includes implications for strategic decision making and risk management policy in the oil & gas industry.

In the last few years the oil and gas industry has been turned around with respect to gas production and availability. Clean burning and abundant natural gas resources have caused high demand, and because of the tax incentives, coalbed methane is a popular gas source. Coalbed reservoirs are much different from conventional natural gas reservoirs because drilling and completion considerations are not the same due to the rock properties. Horizontal wellbores are considered to be very effective in reservoirs that are relatively thin, naturally fractured, and anisotropic with regard to permeability. Coalbed reservoirs have all of these features. The concern today is how to get the gas out of the coalbeds in an economic manner. Coalbed cleat systems are made up of natural fractures, hence vertical wells drilled in the reservoir must be fractured. Horizontal well drilling and completion is an alternative technique to overcome low production as well as reservoir heterogeneities in coalbed reservoirs. Some authors have shown that a properly drilled and completed horizontal well can increase production by about seventy-five percent over that of a fractured vertical well. This paper discusses coalbed properties essential to the application of horizontal drilling and completion. Several techniques used to drill and complete horizontal wells in coalbed reservoirs are discussed and compared with each other to distinguish their application. Introduction The US Bureau of Mines has demonstrated that methane drainage by horizontal and directional boreholes is a safe and effective method of removing methane in advance of mining and of controlling methane emissions during mining. Horizontal holes were found to have the advantages of relatively low drilling costs and the ability to intersect the coalbed cleat or fracture system, thus increasing permeability to gas flow. Hydraulically stimulated vertical holes on the other hand had the disadvantages of requiring large numbers of surface sites, higher costs, and production and maintenance problems. The concept of directionally drilled degasification holes was originally considered by the Bureau of Mines as a means of combining the best elements of the surface vertical borehole and underground horizontal drilling techniques. In the past few years the oil and gas industry has been turned around to be called the gas and oil industry. The clean burning, easily accessible, and overly abundant natural gas resource has created a high demand. For many years, coal mines were degasified and most operators thought little of the value of the gas. But recent demand and tax incentives have made coalbed methane gas a popular item. It is believed there is a large amount of gas stored in coalbeds throughout the United States with current estimates of 400 trillion cubic feet of gas being stored in coalbeds (Fig. 1, Table 1). Today's concern is how to get the gas out of the coalbeds in an economical manner. Recovery of gas from coalbeds occurs in the presence of the low porosity and very low permeability inherent to these beds. The permeability is made up of natural fractures which are arranged in a cleat system. There are two cleat systems: the face cleat and the butt cleat. The face cleat is continuous throughout the reservoir and provides the largest permeability. Vertical wells drilled in the reservoir must be fractured to be in contact with the cleat system and maximize recovery. Coalbeds are much different than conventional natural gas reservoirs in that drilling and completion considerations are not the same due to the unique coalbed properties.

The relevance of this article is due, on the one hand, to the importance of the oil and gas industry in the development of Iraq and, on the other hand, the inability to enhance the existing capacities of the gas industry due to both serious systemic internal causes and external problems. The objective of this article is to study the prospects of the gas industry in conjunction with the oil industry, and develop a strategy for their development based on the forecasting of future scenarios. In the article, the research methods used included a systematic analysis of economic, social and cultural conditions, considering the history of Iraq, including a review of statistical data and a variety of sources. The article proposes a method for choosing the industry development strategy on the basis of an analytical hierarchy process, based on an algorithm of iterative processes using an analysis of hierarchies. To clarify the actors’ policies and strategic goals and to find the optimal solution, repeated iterations of the choice of strategy have been proposed. The strategies were divided into alternative strategies for future scenarios, which were evaluated in actions as able to achieve the goals by determining the consistency ratio and the consistency index. As a result of the study, we can highlight the analysis of the centralized system of oil and gas resources’ management that has developed in Iraq, which has a complicated “top-down” delegation of decisions and responsibility, with decisions made at the political level and resources distributed from above, which precludes individual industries from performing their functions, and also limits the effective implementation of strategic development priorities. The development factors for the gas industry in Iraq were identified and systematized with a rationale for the direction of the industry’s strategic development. Groups of factors were identified: market-affecting determinants of the development of the gas industry, as well as other considerations that may, to a lesser extent, affect the development of Iraq’s gas industry and the oil and gas complex as a whole. The results, assessing the significance of the actors’ goals, can be taken as a basis for development strategies for the oil and gas industry, to improve the contract system of the gas industry in conjunction with the oil industry.

Blockchain technology has been developed for more than ten years and has become a trend in various industries. As the oil and gas industry is gradually shifting toward intelligence and digitalization, many large oil and gas companies were working on blockchain technology in the past two years because of it can significantly improve the management level, efficiency, and data security of the oil and gas industry. This paper aims to let more people in the oil and gas industry understand the blockchain and lead more thinking about how to apply the blockchain technology. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the earliest papers on the review of the blockchain system in the oil and gas industry. This paper first presents the relevant theories and core technologies of the blockchain, and then describes how the blockchain is applied to the oil and gas industry from four aspects: trading, management and decision making, supervision, and cyber security. Finally, the application status, the understanding level of the blockchain in the oil and gas industry, opportunities, challenges, and risks and development trends are analyzed. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) at present, Europe and Asia have the fastest pace of developing the application of blockchain in the oil and gas industry, but there are still few oil and gas blockchain projects in operation or testing worldwide; 2) nowadays, the understanding of blockchain in the oil and gas industry is not sufficiently enough, the application is still in the experimental stage, and the investment is not enough; and (3) blockchain can bring many opportunities to the oil and gas industry, such as reducing transaction costs and improving transparency and efficiency. However, since it is still in the early stage of the application, there are still many challenges, primarily technological, and regulatory and system transformation. The development of blockchains in the oil and gas industry will move toward hybrid blockchain architecture, multi-technology combination, cross-chain, hybrid consensus mechanisms, and more interdisciplinary professionals.

The management of risk is one of the most important issues facing the oil and gas industry today. This paper will focus on the need for risk management in the oil and gas industry. A typical project from a major oil and gas producer has been selected and its typical risks identified. The risks are analysed and modelled in the CASPAR (Computer Aided Simulation for Project Appraisal and Review) program. The paper distinguishes between pure risk and spread risk for forecasting the economic parameters of different risk scenarios. The increasing pace of change, customer demands and market globalisation all put risk management high on the agenda for forward thinking companies. It is necessary today to have a comprehensive risk management strategy. Having a process in place to identify, analyse and manage risks is paramount. The oil and gas industry is fraught with risk and it is necessary for these risks to be assessed continuously. In this paper, the authors examine the downstream risks inherent in the oil and gas industry and differentiate between the more manageable/quantifiable pure risks such as construction, health and safety and project management and the less manageable spread risks associated with war, terrorism and market demand which affect the price of oil and gas.

The oil and gas industry operates in a complex and highly regulated environment where ethical considerations and legal compliance are paramount. This paper proposes an Ethical and Legal Project Management Framework specifically designed for the oil and gas sector, aiming to enhance project execution while ensuring adherence to ethical standards and legal requirements. The framework integrates ethical principles with legal obligations, fostering a culture of integrity and accountability within organizations. At its core, the framework emphasizes the identification and assessment of ethical risks throughout the project lifecycle. By incorporating ethical risk management into project planning and execution, organizations can proactively address potential ethical dilemmas, thus minimizing the risk of legal issues and reputational damage. Key components include stakeholder analysis, transparency in decision-making, and mechanisms for reporting unethical behavior. Legal compliance is another critical element of the framework. The oil and gas industry is subject to a myriad of local, national, and international regulations. The framework outlines best practices for ensuring compliance with environmental laws, labor regulations, and health and safety standards. This involves regular legal audits, staff training, and the establishment of compliance protocols to keep pace with evolving legal requirements. Furthermore, the framework highlights the importance of stakeholder engagement in promoting ethical and legal practices. Engaging with local communities, regulatory bodies, and internal stakeholders ensures that diverse perspectives are considered, enhancing decision-making processes and fostering trust. In addition, the integration of technology and data analytics plays a crucial role in supporting ethical and legal project management. By utilizing advanced tools for monitoring compliance and ethical conduct, organizations can enhance transparency and accountability. In conclusion, the Ethical and Legal Project Management Framework serves as a comprehensive guide for oil and gas companies striving to balance project efficiency with ethical integrity and legal compliance. By embedding these principles into their project management practices, organizations can achieve sustainable success in a challenging industry landscape. Keywords: Ethical Framework, Legal Compliance, Project Management, Oil and Gas Industry, Stakeholder Engagement, Risk Management.

With the rapid improvement of exploration and monitoring technologies, the oil and gas industry has accumulated a large amount of data in the fields of seismic exploration, logging, production, and development. How to transform the huge “data resources” into “data assets” and fully utilize data and tap their real value to better serve society is a main concern in the oil and gas industry today. Therefore, the oil industry needs to complete the industrial upgrading of “Smart Oilfield” through digital and intelligent transformation. In recent years, the rise of big data technology and artificial intelligence have allowed international oil companies and oil service giants to accelerate the construction of digital and intelligent oil fields. The overall framework of the big data intelligent platform of oil and gas resources should be based on data resources with big data platform computing power as the support and artificial intelligence algorithms as the core. To meet the production needs of the oil and gas industry, it is of great urgency to build an oil and gas data resource pool that integrates exploration, development, and production data. The data quality can be improved via data cleaning and fusion. Physical simulations, data mining, and other approaches should be combined to achieve the modularization of service functions. Additionally, the goals of intelligent monitoring, early warning, and display on multi-dimensional platforms such as PC, control screen, and mobile apps can also be achieved. The analysis of artificial intelligence methods such as deep learning in the context of the oil and gas industry shows that these methods have good application prospects. In the future, oil companies should work together with scientific research institutes to tap the huge potential of oil industry data, achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase, and build a new smart oil and gas industrial ecosystem to complete industrial upgrading.

Effective project management plays a crucial role to the success of organizations via resilient execution of activities, in terms of performance and efficiency. Due to the recent market dynamics and its associated uncertainties, affecting several segments in the oil and gas (O&G) industry, utilization of innovative contracting schemes such as Front End Engineering Design (FEED) competition, and value engineered products are becoming of great importance to achieve the project's goals optimally. This paper discusses the competitiveness and strategic benefits of employing the vendor's pre-engineered and standardized turbomachinery equipment/solutions, to meet the required functionality while maintaining the highest levels of quality and safety. Several project management concepts and tools were employed, such as SWOT analysis, to discuss the benefits of supplying vendor's pre-engineered high value and long-lead turbomachinery equipment within projects, as a cost-effective solution, in place of customized products. A Requirements-to-Implementation Mapping (RIM) exercise was also carried out to benchmark the pre-engineered solutions with the industry practices while considering the packaging requirements from well-known international and national oil companies. This paper also presents success stories of implementing pre-engineered solutions that strongly contributed in improving the management of projects from engineering to operational phase. This study works in line with the recent O&G operators’ initiatives in promoting agile approach to mitigate the forces that are impacting the industry and in turn the economy, such as COVID-19 pandemic. The study analysis, employing semi-quantitative approach, revealed that the pre-engineered solution brings to customers an improved value proposition in terms of cost, delivery, quality, safety, and aftermarket support, which contributes greatly in minimizing gold plating to achieve leaner projects. Standardized equipment is also found to be effective in minimizing the risks associated with changes and therefore improving the control on project constraints as well as simplifying the purchasing management of strategic equipment. In this respect, the use of standardization and pre-engineered activities could lead to a reduction of lead time up to 30%. The reliability of the standardized equipment will also be increased due to the proven frozen designs which have been repeatedly manufactured, tested, and supplied and therefore ensures successful and seamless project close-out. The proposed approach of mixing pre-engineered commodities to customized and configurable features based on site conditions provides the proper flexibility required by O&G industry while, simultaneously, maximizing the benefits of standardization. The strategic benefits of pre-engineered turbomachinery packages in the context of project management and supply chain process is not well recognized. This study explains these benefits to increase the customer's confidence level in utilizing this approach and benefit from its values, especially during the changing dynamics of the O&G industry.

The research presented in this thesis is rooted within the existing decision theory and oil industry literatures. It contributes to one of the current debates in these literatures by providing evidence that in the operators in the U.K. upstream oil and gas industry there is a link between the use of decision analysis in investment appraisal decision making by organisations and good business performance. It is commonly acknowledged that decision analysis is not as widely used by organisations as was predicted at its conception (for example, Schuyler, 1997). One reason for this is that no study to date has shown that use of decision analysis techniques and concepts can actually help individuals or organisations to fulfil their objectives. Despite over four decades of research undertaken developing decision analysis tools, understanding the behavioural and psychological aspects of decision making, and applying decision analysis in practice, no research has been able to show conclusively what works and what does not (Clemen, 1999). The current study begins to fill this gap by using qualitative methods to establish the following. Firstly, the research identifies which decision analysis techniques are applicable for investment decision-making in the oil industry, and thereby produces a description of current capability. Secondly, the study ascertains which decision analysis tools oil and gas companies actually choose to use for investment appraisal, and through this develops a model of current practice of capital investment decision making. Lastly, using statistical analysis, it provides evidence that there is an association between the use of decision analysis in investment decision-making by companies and good organisational performance in the upstream oil and gas industry. Such research not only contributes to the current theoretical debate in the oil industry and decision theory literatures but also provides valuable insights to practitioners.

In recent years, new terms and concepts have appeared that describe the digital transformation currently in progress. The world image, including in the industrial world, has been changed by the concept of intelligent enterprise (IE) - a set of technological innovations, including artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent automation (IA), deep learning technologies, predictive analytics and cognitive computing. The increasing complexity of the oil and gas business and the decreasing optimization potential from traditional approaches require the use of new, innovative digital technologies to remain competitive. Responding to the market conditions of falling hydrocarbon prices, the oil and gas industry is increasingly mastering Big Data to optimize technological processes and prevent accidents. The emergence of Big Data technologies, predictive analysis and machine learning are changing the general image of many industries, and the oil and gas industry is no exception. New players are quickly emerging throughout the industry, and digitalization will affect the entire value chain throughout in the oil and gas industry. Among the most promising segments for the transition to digital technologies are asset management and infrastructure facilities, field development, geophysical services, pipelines and processing. Digital technology is the most powerful driver for cost reduction. It is expected that implementing these solutions will, by 2030, reduce the costs of E & P projects by up to 30%. Thus, Russia can leverage these new technologies and retain a share in the world energy market for another 50 years. The oil industry has recently passed the most difficult period in the last 30 years. The fall in oil prices since 2014, the reduction of 350 thousand employees worldwide, and fall in production investment are examples of serious challenges that the industry has faced in recent years. These challenges have resulted in new attempts to optimize business through implementing new technologies to improve the efficiency and profitability of companies.

GO-NII (written in 1994) Mission Statement: The National Information Infrastructure major partnership will apply information technology to reduce cost, share information and promote innovation within a global virtual environment to support national security related applications and enhance U.S. industrial competitiveness. The technologies needed by the gas and oil industry are closely in line with the technology needs of Defense Programs. LLNL' s GO-NII efforts were principally focused on support of the Synthetic Seismic Dataset, and to a lesser extent on support of the ARJES effort and the PTTC. The four DOE facilities, LANL, LLNL, MMES, and SNL, formed a partnership with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) to produce a synthetic three dimensional seismic dataset (SSD). The dataset is to be used by the gas and oil industry to validate their three dimensional seismic processing techniques and will also be used in the development and demonstration of networking, storage, security, visualization, and collaborative tools technologies. Using parallel processing platforms at each of the DOE facilities, a two terabyte dataset has been generated, which is now stored at LLNL's FAST. Tools to access the SSD were developed within the Intelligent Archive effort at LLNL. The SSD and the data access tools will ultimately be transferred to the oil and gas industry.