Chapter 14 - Project Management in a Boom Era

Abstract

Brown & Root's success as project manager for the development of the Forties complex heralded an era of involvement in a series of major North Sea projects. Brown & Root's clients, the major operators in the North Sea, needed large, flexible management organizations to control and supervise the fabrication and installation of the concrete and steel mega-structures built in this era. The size and complexity of North Sea projects encouraged the use of project managers to foster efficient organizational relationships among the field operator, the project contractor, and the numerous subcontractors. In the decade after the completion of the Forties platforms, Brown & Root worked on a variety of North Sea projects that embodied further advances in steel jacket technology, most notably the fabrication of self-floating jackets for Chevron's Ninian field and BP's Magnus field and the HIDECK design for the Maureen field developed by Phillips Petroleum. Concrete gravity structures offered a promising alternative to steel structures in the North Sea. They absorbed tremendous topside weight even though, in the opinion of some, their construction costs were often less than those steel platforms. Brown & Root Marine had specialized in the design and construction of steel structures throughout its history, and it remained at the forefront of this technology in the North Sea. The Tension Leg Platform (TLP) represented the next important innovation in platform design originating from the North Sea. This was a steel structure of a different sort, with a design that promised great benefits in waters up to 2,000 feet deep. Eventually sharp price declines of the mid-1980s marked the end of an era of almost frenzied expansion marked by far-reaching engineering advances. Brown & Root had been a pioneer in the North Sea boom, and as the boom subsided, it would be forced to become a pioneer in charting a sustainable path in an era of lower prices.