Tips to overcome pitfalls in EPC contract executed hydrocarbon processing plant

EPC contract award, commissioning and startup of is the common method adopted by hydrocarbon processing industry(HPI) owners, due to economics, accountability and ease of project execution. Usually a consortium of EPC companies win and execute the project. The major pitfalls in this mode of contract for the owner are: 1. Minimum vendor interactions during project execution 2. Many vendor specific data and documentation are not available- very specific to critical equipment, specific consumption, performance curves, operational design calculations etc. 3. Inaccurate design basis - example considering ONE set of values for designing equipment 4. Equipment sizing and turndown considerations 5. Guarantee valuation basis not rigorously determined 6. Hazop implementation not complete 7. Redundant and incomplete instrumentation and controls 8. Incomplete or improper selection of valves, controllers, online analyzers, etc. 9. Errors and mistakes in drawings, key information missing and not made available even after years of plant in operation 10. Lab equipment specification and test protocols incomplete, incorrect and insufficient. .. 11. Equipment site test runs are completed without full load conditions....The list is long. How to overcome these? Here are some thoughts: 1. Involve the vendor through EPC till satisfactory full and varying load operational test run is complete. Hold the vendor/EPC accountable for any shortfall in instrumentation, specific consumption, equipment performance , calculation errors, output quality and quantity. 2. Ask EPC/Vendor to revise drawings and documents immediately upon deviant performance observations 3. Vendor training/ orientation should be only specific to the equipment supplied. Vendor should explain every aspect of design, selection of materials, equipment and instrumentation, establish sizing methodology 4. EPC/Vendor should share all the calculations 5. Vendor should provide process engineering monitoring tools and software 6. Owner should ask EPC/Vendor to make as much uniform specifications for common units such as utilities and other similar processes. 7. Documents and Drawings of internals, cut sections, and specific parts of the supplied equipment (not generic) must be provided. 8. Cause and effect study must fully and only pertain to the supplied equipment and not generic 9. Process engineering optimization strategy must be established with the vendor 10. Vendor must be accessible to the owner even years after EPC handover.

It is common observation that during the project execution, due to priorities on completion and commissioning, process engineers do not notice vital aspects design faults and errors in calculations that result in higher opex. This is mainly due to unfamiliar processes or units, new technologies & complex communication procedure that consumes time. Usually vendors seldom provide customized designed equipment but usually choose a "near modular" standard in their stable. It is the responsibility of the owner engineers to insure nearly customized delivery and execution.