 |
OFFSHORE E-NEWS
October 2000
|
 |
 |
THE TOP MOST
REQUESTED
OFFSHORE RISK SERVICES
|
"Naturally,
the use of risk is not new to offshore. What's interesting,
though, is the increasing importance of risk in determining
the viability of projects and designs."
--Frank
Puskar
EQE Houston Group Manager
|
|
 |
omparative
risk studies, particularly to investigate deepwater FPSOs,
top the list |
of
the most requested offshore risk services, according to EQE
Houston Group Manager, Frank Puskar. While a comparative risk
study is most often applied to an aspect of design –
for instance, routing of a riser through or external to a
spar hull; isolation strategy for a deepwater riser; or comparison
of double to single bottom hull designs for FPSOs – a
growing trend has been the use of comparative risk in offshore
design competitions. Owners are looking to EQE to help decide
between competing proposals, balancing out such variables
as capital expenditure against further reduction of safety,
health and environmental risk and, later, lifecycle maintenance.
Other
offshore risk services gaining a lot of attention include:
cost and schedule risk (also called programmatic risk) to
evaluate a cost and schedule's accuracy and quantitative
risk assessments providing formal safety studies, as required
by regulators and/or company standards.
|
"Naturally,
the use of risk is not new to offshore. What's interesting, though,
is the increasing importance of risk in determining the viability
of projects and designs," said Puskar. "Before this, a lot of emphasis
was placed on experience. But as projects move to deeper water and
as designs become more innovative, questions arise that cannot be
answered by experience. That is one area where risk can be of additional
value."
Cost
and Schedule Risk
EQE has received
several recent contracts to provide independent review of proposed
costs and schedules for new offshore projects. Frequently, these
programmatic assessments are requested by oil and gas clients to
assure themselves that the cost and schedule submitted by a primary
contractor is feasible. In a growing number of cases, however, primary
contractors seek an assessment so that they can, in turn, submit
it with their proposal during the bidding process, thus providing
a high degree of assurance that the project has been planned thoroughly
and all known risks have been addressed with appropriate contingency
measures.
Programmatic
risk assessment portrays the accuracy of the cost and schedule based
on many variables, including market factors, material prices and
availability, labor supply, complexity of designs, and other factors.
As a result, this assessment can also highlight areas where slippage
may occur.
"A programmatic
risk assessment can help owners discover the most effective means
of controlling construction projects and EPIC Contractors to optimize
their project strategy," said Puskar. "Used at an early phase,
the assessment can help shore up areas of slippage and promote the
success of a project. This is especially important when a single
offshore unit may be requiring an overall investment in the multi-millions
or billions and cost and schedule errors can quickly compound."
|
Story Index
