Abstract
With only half of the carbon footprint of coal, natural gas is widely considered to be an important transition fuel as the world economy shifts away from more carbon-intensive energy sources towards lower-carbon alternatives. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) has accordingly grown as a solution for connecting producers and consumers of this valuable resource that are geographically separated by large distances or barriers that make pipelines infeasible. Many construction projects are underway or being planned around the world to bring onstream the vast amounts of infrastructure required for this strategically important energy source. Despite the importance of these projects, however, they are frequently plagued by significant overruns in both scheduling and cost that could impede the progress of the adoption of natural gas in both the short- and long-term. Towards understanding these impediments, this paper puts forward a systematic literature review that synthesizes project management research and prior contributions in the LNG domain to identify risk factors that are most important to schedule and cost overruns in LNG projects. We then put forward a series of research questions that highlight the most fruitful areas for future investigations in this area, thereby helping to lay the groundwork for research that would potentially speed up the rate at which new natural gas supplies can supplant more carbon intensive fuel sources around the world.
Highlights
With only half of the carbon footprint of coal, natural gas is widely considered to be an important transition fuel as the world economy shifts away from more carbon-intensive energy sources towards lower-carbon alternatives
Construction projects in the upstream oil & gas industry1 are usually complex, and are exposed to greater risks than many other sectors due to the relatively high levels of capital investment involved, environmental and social issues, and conflicting interests among stakeholders (Van Thuyet et al, 2007; Zou et al, 2007). These risks can negatively influence project performance measures like schedule, cost, and quality (Van Thuyet et al, 2007; Charoenngam and Yeh, 1999). These significant schedule overruns have become increasingly commonplace within Liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, contributing to severe cost blowouts that have in turn resulted in a more than doubling of the upstream capital cost index of LNG developments around the world from 2003–2013 (Smil, 2015, p. 208)
Therein lay the overarching contributions of this research: to provide a critical review and synthesis of the literature related to schedule overruns in LNG construction projects, to shed light on patterns and themes emerging within the literature in these areas, and to put forward a series of research questions that highlight the most fruitful areas for future investigations in this area
Summary
Following the five-point framework for conducting literature reviews put forward by vom Brocke, Simons (vom Brocke et al, 2009), a conceptual map (Fig. 2) was constructed to identify the relevant subtopics that are connected or that could be potentially connected to the research area being reviewed. The elements of the concept map were comprehensively searched via all four of the approaches prescribed by vom Brocke et al (2009)—by searching journals, databases, keywords, and backward/forward searches. 2004), in proceedings of reputable conferences (cf Webster and Watson, 2002), or in scholarly databases (along with searchable keywords) from 1985 until the present day. The beginning of this targeted timeframe, 1985, was selected because the earliest foundational contributions pertaining to the topic of delays in construction projects (e.g., Arditi et al, 1985; Sullivan and Harris, 1986) emerged at that time. Content analysis was used to analyze and synthesize the literature items included in the review.
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