THE MARCH SPE TECHNOLOGY LUNCHEON
Tuesday March 12th 11:30am

Petroleum Technology In-Person meeting March 12 at 11:30AM

DIRECTIONS:

From the 605 Freeway---

• Exit and go East on Katella
• Turn South onto Valley View
• Turn West onto Orangewood & you’re there!

From the 405 or the 22 Freeways---

• Carefully Follow Freeway signs to
• Exit at Valley View / Bolsa Chica
• Go North on Valley View for 1 mile
• Turn West onto Orangewood & you’re there!

What have we Learned in 20 yrs of using a Front-End Loading Process for O&G Projects
Basker Murugappan, So. Calif. Gas Co.

Abstract:

Within a portfolio of 62 major projects spanning the past 3 years, 70% of projects failed to deliver the target production volumes on time or within budget. These projects include the simple and the complex, such as: greenfield developments, brownfield developments, field redevelopments, equity purchases, and partner operated ventures (POV). Even individual workovers exhibit similar failures to meet expectations. The impacted parties include major operators. Reputable and recognizable National Oil Companies (NOC), Integrated Oil Companies (IOC), and Independents all suffered. Each of these reputable and capable organizations employed mature project assurance or other gated processes with basis of design (BOD) or field development plans (FDP) at each sanction or execution gate. Almost all used some form of Opportunity Realization Process (ORP), Pre-Project Planning (PPP), Front End loading (FEL) gated process, yet the integrated management approach still failed. Why? All effective ORP or gated project assurance processes depend on a common basic element: Wide-ranging, overlapping experience within the contributing disciples. In each of the failure cases, the experience was either limited, retired, or pushed aside by political or financial pressures. As a result, technically infeasible projects were sanctioned. The author will illustrate 5 example projects, each resulted in the destruction of asset value rather than creation or realization of value.

Bio:

Mr. Basker Stargard Murugappan’s career spans more than 35 years in the oilfield. He has worked for major National Oil Companies (NOC), including Petronas and KNOC. Additionally, he has worked for major Integrated Oil Companies (IOCs) and Independent oil companies, including Shell, UNOCAL, BP, and Taqa, in more than 30 counties across 5 continents. His experience includes production engineering roles, completion roles, and more. He currently works for SocalGas as a Production Technologist where he specializes in production technology and completions.

Mr. Murugappan earned both a BS and MS in Petroleum Engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He has authored approximately 5 technical papers, and contributed to more 30 SPE workshops and Conferences across Asia and Africa. During his career, he has presented and taught classes on production technology and completions at multiple SPE conferences and workshops. This is in addition to numerous classes taught internally within IOC, NOC, and Independent Oil Company employers