Direct Savings:  US$ 250,000 (0,5% FEED contract value)

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Potential Savings:  US$ 750,000 (1,5% FEED contract value)

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Losses Avoided:   US$ 1,000,000 (2% FEED contract value)

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Other:    + Project Viability

              + Stakeholders Synergy

              + Design Quality

              + Productivity

              + Project Progress Control

              -  Interface Problems

              + Schedule Adherence

 

​THE CHALLENGE:

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PETROBRAS was created in 1953 with mandate over all oil & gas exploration and refining in Brazilian territory. Pioneering in the development of deep-sea drilling, PETROBRAS is today the largest Brazilian company and one of the largest in the world (8°largest at 2010). Its investment budget is considered the highest in the world and is worth US$55 billion/year. It holds 132 exploration units, 16 refineries, 16 thermopower units, 30,000km of pipelines and more than 6000 service stations distributed across Brazil and more than 29 countries.

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In November 2007, PETROBRAS launched its largest challenge: the construction of the Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (COMPERJ). Initially conceived to host a basic petrochemicals central and a complete refinery, the mega-project would involve the construction of more than 100 units integrated by 4,5Kms of pipelines. The winner of the international bid promoted to choose the supplier of basic engineering and FEED studies was WORLEYPARSONS Houston office having as local partner CNEC Engenharia (owned by Camargo Correa Group and lately acquired by WORLEYPARSONS).

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The 3-year long contract was worth US$50,000,000 and included the development of an integrated 3D model of the whole complex which would serve as a basis for lay-out studies and material estimations. One part of the project would be developed in Houston (EUA) by WORLEYPARSONS and another one in São Paulo (Brazil) at the CNEC offices. To take advantage of each company top expertise, it was agreed that WORLEYPARSONS would be in charge of process, piping and mechanical disciplines, while CNEC would be responsible by civil, steelworks and electrical disciplines.

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Such innovative strategy of international work division proposed by PETROBRAS created the challenge of making the two companies not only to work within the same database, but also within the same space and the same objects (there was nothing like a "battery limit" between partners). Such design strategy lately became known internationally as WORKSHARE.

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The initial challenge of working within the same database was solved through the adoption of AVEVA PDMS GLOBAL, a revolutionary tool at the time which allowed the synchronization of a great amount of data between the main database (host) and a secondary one (satellite) in a short amount of time.

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Also, to turn possible for partners to work within the same space with same objects, a procedure was created to release items for work based on responsibility attributes and a color code, procedure that work relatively well for a certain period of time.

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Just when the number of modeled elements began to increase fast and project integration between two companies grew in importance the procedure start losing efficiency until a certain point where it became virtually impossible to know "what" belonged to "whom", how much have been modeled, which state each element was in, and how much work there was left.

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Under heavy pressure for results, CNEC and WORLEYPARSONS invited IATEC Plant Solutions to analyze the problem and provide a diagnostic, a far from straightforward work on a project already 2 years long.

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After a detailed analysis of the database and following the work process for a couple of weeks, IATEC Plant Solutions discovered several problems in the information exchange process between the two partners. There was problems in the attribute system, naming convention, modeling and mostly in the handover process of the modeled elements. Due to outdated project practices, lack of knowledge on how to organize a WORKSHARE environment and to the size of the entrepreneurship these problems quickly escalated to become a project bottleneck.

 

 

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​THE WORK:

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In charge of correcting all these problems, IATEC Plant Solutions redesign all process of information exchange between WORLEYPARSONS and CNEC, created software-based automatic process for screening, register and follow-up of modeled elements (OC®, SOW® e SIC®), and implemented an innovative model progress control.

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The new WORKSHARE procedure was quickly implemented without major hurdles and in few weeks was submited to its first great test: the handover of the entire area 8000 to PETROBRAS. In less than 1 month, more than 4000 elements were exchanged and worked within 3D model between WORLEYPARSONS and CNEC without a single failure. The result was considered a great success both in terms of time and quality, extracting the most out of the partners´ synergy.

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After this great test, it was necessary to tackle all lay-out modeling and verification load which were kept hidden by the old procedure for a long time and now were widely visible through model progress curves. For this IATEC Plant Solutions lead a task-force which modeled more than 9000 elements in just 6 months (productivity 8x higher than before).

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​RESULTS:

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In May 2010, the complete FEED model and all basic engineering and material take-off was handed-over to PETROBRAS by WORLEYPARSONS, rigorously within contractual term. Once again, IATEC Plant Solutions demonstrated that the combination of well configured tools + precise work methodology is fundamental to take the most out of any technological investment. To arrive at such perfect combination, "knowing how to operate a software" is not enough, it necessary to have deep engineering and project management knowledge, something that only time and experience can bring.

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IATEC Plant Solutions participation in the project resulted in +US$ 250,000 of direct economies for WORLEY PARSONS and CNEC, resulting from resources optimization and higher productivity. In case IATEC Plant Solution had been involved since beginning of the project this savings could easily tops +US$ 500.000 (1% contract value). IATEC Plant Solutions participation also prevented delays that could have cost WORLEYPARSONS up to -US$1,000,000 (2 % do contract value) in contractual penalties.

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The WORKSHARE concepts and procedures created by IATEC where internalized by WORLEYPAROSNS and helped the company to unleash the enormous synergy potential that existed among its 40 offices worldwide, making the company reference in this kind of practice.

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WORLEYPARSONS became a key client for IATEC Plant Solutions. Ever since, it´s more than 5 years of partnership, several jobs accomplished and many more to come.

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COMPERJ complex is under construction nowadays and due to great delays in the subsequent phases (involving other companies) is expected to be inaugurated in 2016.

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