Project Challenges

This project contained a lot of brown field live work, green field, as well as some major heavy lifts, that required a contractor with an extensive safety program to navigate the inherent complexities. 

The Phoenix Industrial Solution

Phoenix Industrial was a key component at this facility since the construction phase started in 2006, with a man-hour contribution of 1.6M.  This included the execution of both major and minor projects throughout the years, from wellpads, flowlines, and de-bottlenecking the main plant, to the successful execution of several workface planned shutdowns.

The Long Lake project has been a showcase for the Phoenix Industrial workface planning system, and a lot of the valuable services that come with that approach.  The commitment from both sides was crucial to making the success of the system what it is today.

Early in the project workface planning techniques were embraced to help define the scope from a construction and field level perspective.  All engineered scope was broken down into easier to manage packages that could be executed at the field level.  All this scope was then verified and QC was able to sign off that it matched all regulatory requirements.  Performance metrics were then used to determine productivity, and gaps in project delivery.   Phoenix was also able to closely manage the critical path work and assign manpower accordingly, to ensure schedule compliance. 

Cost and progress reports were delivered to our clients on a daily basis for review and sign off.  Nexen's management group had full visibility into our project at all times. 

Change management fit into this system quite seamlessly.  As new scope was identified in the field, it was broken down by the change management team, quantified, and then delivered to the client for review and approval.  Once the approval was provided, the change management team could quickly re-package the scope and push it out to the field for execution.  All this extra work was then tracked and reported back to the client to maintain visibility on budget and schedule.  

A progressive turnover system was adopted early in this project.  Phoenix was able to tag all scope to its process system as well as its work package.  This means, as the work was being completed by feild level work packages, and optimizing the use of labour, Phoenix could also measure how they were progressing in terms of system turnover.  As systems neared completion, Phoenix was able to key in on the system to finish the work, complete any neccessary testing and commissioning, and have the turnover package ready for handover with very little effort after construction was completed.  This lead to large cost savings in verification labour, as well as, time it would have taken at the end of the project. 

The Phoenix Industrial fabrication facility also played a key role in the success of these projects.  Over the eight years of supporting the on-site operation at Long Lake, our fabrication facility contributed in the vicinity of 3600 tons of fabricated structural steel, as well as, 40,000 diameter inches of pipe spooling.  This lead to a strong communication network between onsite and offsite management.