INSIGHTS
Focussed on the most important practical challenges faced by industry.
Latest Articles
Engineering Quality Management
By Corne Thirion and Jurie Steyn. Projects are often remembered for their cost overruns or delayed delivery, rather than the quality of their deliverables. Yet, it is the quality of those deliverables that dictates the potential financial gains or losses throughout its lifespan. This article discusses an Engineering Quality Management (EQM) approach that ensures the delivery of technical quality in engineering projects.
Project Governance
By Herman van Heerden, Freek van Heerden, Jurie Steyn Introduction Ed Merrow (2011), in his book Industrial Megaprojects, maintains that much of the pathology we see in megaprojects today reflects the nature and problems of the modern industrial firm and the way in...
Black Swan Risk Management for Projects
By Jurie Steyn.Introduction Decimus Junius Juvenalis, known in English as Juvenal, was a poet active in the period AD 110 to 130. He wrote sixteen satires on the vices, abuses, and follies of Imperial Rome and is regarded by many as one of the greatest satirists of...
Natural Gas for Road Transport
By Freek van Heerden, Corne Thirion and Jurie Steyn. Introduction Natural gas is a fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane (CH4) and is the cleanest of all hydrocarbon fuels. It generates carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, upon combustion and is therefore not...
Small-scale versus Large-scale LNG Plants
By Jurie Steyn. Introduction Consumption of natural gas (NG) has grown rapidly over the past three decades and today accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s primary energy supply. Although global primary energy consumption fell by 4,5% in 2020 due to the Covid-19...
Technology Innovations to Improve Industrial Health & Safety
Are serious accidents inevitable in heavy industry? Why, despite our best efforts, do fatalities continue to occur? Can technology play a role in improving safety performance? Are there any emerging technologies that could result in a breakthrough improvement in health and safety performance in industries such as mining, oil & gas, chemical, and others?
Other Articles
Natural Gas for Power Generation
By Corne Thirion and Jurie Steyn Introduction The world needs an abundant supply of clean and affordable energy to support economic and social progress and build a better quality of life, particularly in developing countries. Until recently, this desire for energy has...
Outlets and Applications for Natural Gas
By Jurie Steyn Introduction South Africa’s energy sector has been in a state of insecurity for many years, and this will probably continue into the foreseeable future. Carbon emissions are high due to an over-reliance on coal as feedstock. This sets the scene for a...
Learning from All Projects
Any organisation should strive for continual improvement in the way they execute projects. A good way to do this is to ensure that mistakes of the past are not repeated.
Comparison of inland NG,LNG and imported LNG
By Anton Putter, Freek van Heerden and Herman van Heerden. Introduction The question often arises on the best way to start a natural gas (NG) industry or grow the NG industry in a country. South Africa is a good case in point where the NG industry has stagnated over...
Overview of LNG Technologies
By Christine Render (OTC) and Bill Howe (Gasconsult). This article explores the most commonly used technologies for the different LNG plant capacity ranges.Introduction Natural gas (NG) has become an increasingly important energy resource and is an important feedstock...
Beneficial Utilisation of Carbon Dioxide
In this article, we take a brief look at the thermodynamics of CO2 and present an overview of some of the more interesting and promising applications for CO2, based on public domain information. Introduction Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the major cause of climate change,...
Alternative Modes of Natural Gas Transport
In this article we explore how energy from natural gas can be transported in other forms rather than directly as gas or liquefied gas. Some of these methods are more speculative than others and research and development is at an early stage. Introduction The transport...
Thoughts on Marketing a Small Consulting Firm
Marketing is everything that you and your company do to find and keep clients. Most small consulting engineering firms do not have marketing departments or even dedicated marketers. Marketing responsibilities are carried out by partners as one of several management...
Safe and Clean Storage of Natural Gas
In this article, we discuss the different natural gas storage methods and the safety and environmental considerations in both transport and storage of natural gas. Introduction Transportation of natural gas is intricately linked to its storage infrastructure. If...
Smart Factories and the ‘New Normal’
It was only a short 12 months ago that things were vastly different. At the time, I wrote an article entitled Beyond Capex: Future-proofing your IT investment for sustainable value delivery (Halse, 2019). The article introduced smart manufacturing and covered the...
Traditional gas transport modes
The efficient and effective movement of natural gas (NG) from producing regions to consumption regions requires an extensive and elaborate transportation system. In many instances, NG produced from a particular well will have to travel a great distance to reach its...
Document Management in a Digital World
Once again, I am grappling with the future and considering moving back to the past… Things worked then, didn’t they? Printers, photocopiers, and fax machines were the order of the day. Nothing could go forward on a project unless there was a signature on the...
Overview of the LNG industry
In this overview of the natural gas (NG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) industries, the emphasis is on the global LNG industry. Where applicable, brief remarks are included on LNG in southern Africa. The purpose of this article is to provide background on the LNG...
Hydrogen for Vehicular Transport
I have had very few opportunities to use a motor vehicle during the past several months of Covid-19 induced incarceration. Not being able to travel, affords one the opportunity to reflect on what the future may hold for vehicular transport. In other words, what will...
Importance of Project Stakeholder Management
Effective stakeholder management is fundamental to the success of projects. Communication is one of the main mechanisms used in stakeholder management. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI, 2013), amongst those organisations considered to be highly...
Remote Project Support for Owner Teams
Much has been written about the Covid-19 virus pandemic, the impact it has had on the world economy and how it will necessitate changes to the way we have traditionally interacted with other parties. At this time, nobody knows precisely what the future holds, but we...
Excelling in the New “Virtual” World of Work
What does it mean to work virtually and excelling in this new world of work?Chapter 1: What does it mean to work virtually and excelling in this new world of work. Chapter 2: Processes required for successful virtual teamsChapter 3: Tools and technology required...
Proven Time Management Tips for Project Managers
Time consumes most of our lives and in some form or degree is an essential part of life: past, present and future. It brings a sense of order into our lives via structured routine and a common way of interacting with our fellow humans for planning of activities,...
Focus on the business case throughout the project life cycle
How many business cases are presented for approval, and then filed away once the project is underway, never to see the light of day again? If this is the situation in your company then please reconsider your approach - in this article we explain why. Introduction The...
Hydrogen as Energy Carrier
In this article, we share some thoughts about a potential future hydrogen economy, discuss the different production routes for hydrogen, consider logistic implications of hydrogen storage and distribution, and describe some of the applications of hydrogen, and particularly transport applications.
The Importance of Engineering Management
In this article we address the areas where the engineering manager must take the lead for a project to be a business success Introduction The role of the engineering manager in projects was previously described using the ten knowledge areas of the Project Management...
Planning for Medical Emergencies during Project Implementation
In this article, I focus on planning for medical emergencies during project execution in remote areas. Emergency situations include construction incidents, transport incidents, fires and releases of contaminants to the environment. The incidents mentioned can all...
Beyond Capex: Future proofing your IT investment for sustainable value delivery
In this article, I explore Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0, and the way in which these trends are impacting manufacturing. I also demonstrate that for a new business to be future proofed against digital disruption, it needs to develop the necessary digital...
Crude Oil Market Dynamics 2019
OTC published a series of three articles in early 2015 on the international crude oil market and price (Putter & Buys, 2015). This article is an update and follow-up on the 2015 articles. We thought now would be an opportune time to give an update on what...
Hydraulic Fracturing of Rock Formations Part 2: Coal-bed Methane Recovery
This is the second of a two-part series of articles on the hydraulic fracturing of rock, also known as fracking. This is a technology that everyone has an opinion on, but few take the trouble to understand what it’s all about. The two parts are as follows: Part 1:...
Hydraulic Fracturing of Rock Formations Part 1: Introduction and Applications
This is the first of a two-part series of articles on the hydraulic fracturing of rock, also known as fracking. This is a technology that everyone has an opinion on, but few take the trouble to understand what it’s all about. The two parts are as follows: Part 1:...
Introduction to Constructability and Constuctability Programmes
This article focuses on the benefits of constructability, and implementation of a constructability programme in companies, at both corporate and project level Introduction Constructability is a project management technique for reviewing the whole construction process...
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility for Projects
In this article, an attempt is made to provide an integrated view of strategic CSR on projects. A stronger focus will be given to strategic CSR in the context of developing countries. Introduction Before we consider strategic corporate social responsibility, let’s...
Comparison of Coal-bed Methane to Other Energy Resources
How clean is coal-bed methane (CBM) as an energy source? A comparison of CBM to other non-renewable energy sources in the context of future energy predictions provides some useful insights in this regard. Introduction Our team has been working on a coal-bed methane...
Can Anybody be a Project Manager?
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet specific project requirements. Can anyone be a project manager, more importantly can anyone be effective in this role? Opening remarks Can anybody be a...
Third Generation Modularisation
The development of modularisation in the process industry, from Generation 1 (G1) to Generation 3 (G3), was discussed in an earlier Insight Article. In this article we focus on the more salient and practical issues during the development of a modular approach and...
The Elusive Project Sponsor
All projects are risky ventures: the larger and more complex the project, the higher the risk of an unsuccessful outcome. The project sponsor is the primary risk taker and owner of the project’s business case. In this article, we consider several scenarios for the...
Introducing the Project Execution Plan
The Project Execution Plan is used by the project team and management to assure, firstly, that the right aspects for project implementation are considered and secondly, that the project has been described in such a way that during each stage of front-end loading (FEL)...
The Widening Trust Gap in Projects
Trust is essential for project success. With several stakeholders, often with competing short term business objectives, how is this trust established by the owner team? What causes trust to break down? In this article we discuss this challenge from the perspective...
Natural Gas in Southern Africa, Part 2: Available gas resources and future development
This is the second part of a 2-part series of articles covering the natural gas industry in southern Africa. For these articles, we view southern Africa as comprising South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The two parts focus...
Natural Gas in Southern Africa, Part 1: Current supply and demand
This is the first part of a 2-part series of articles covering the natural gas industry in southern Africa. For these articles, we view southern Africa as comprising South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The two parts focus...
The Project Management Office (PMO)
“Our leaders are great thinkers. We need to take those ideas, make sure they are grounded and able to be executed. The PMO helps us do that.” - President of project services, global construction services provider, North America (Forrester Consulting, 2013)...
Structuring the Business to the Project Opportunity
The world constantly provides us with a myriad of challenging and exciting business opportunities. Whether you are an entrepreneur developing the opportunity or it is being developed by the business development department of a major corporation, the focus is normally...
Disrupting Project Controls – Fast Forward 20 Years
Industry 4.0 is going to be very disruptive to manufacturing business. How could this impact on projects, and in particular the project controls function? Kevin Mattheys provides some thoughts on this topic. Introduction Sitting in the OTC office in Wellington,...
Effective Process Safety Management
"Keep it in the pipe!" This paper addresses the elements of a process safety framework through the stages of a project from concept design, to detailed design, to operations; and translates these into elements of a process safety management programme. Introduction...
Quantitative Risk Analysis for Projects
This article is a continuation of a two-part series of articles on the basics of project risk management as published previously. The two parts are as follows: Part 1: Planning for project risk management (Steyn, 2018a); and Part 2: Identify, analyse, action and...
Effective Handover of Projects to Operations Teams
This article focuses on project handover of large scale, complex industrial projects to operations teams. However, the complexity and number of activities and deliverables are huge and cannot be covered in detail in an article of this nature. Introduction Project...
Introduction to Engineering Management
In this article the roles and responsibilities of an engineering manager and the interaction between the engineering manager and the project manager is explored. Introduction There is sometimes confusion regarding the role of, and need for, an engineering manager on a...
Effective Information Management through the Opportunity Life-Cycle
This article covers a high level overview of IM (Information Management) in both the project and business environments. In both environments it is important to have an IM strategy that supports the goals of the project and/or the operating business, and which is...
Introduction to Project Risk Management: Part 2 – Identify, analyse, action and monitor project risks
This article is a continuation of a two-part series of articles on the basics of project risk management as published previously. The two parts are as follows: Part 1: Planning for project risk management (Steyn, 2018a); and Part 2: Identify, analyse, action and...
Introduction to Project Risk Management: Part 1 – Planning for project risk management
This article is the first of a two-part series of articles on the basics of project risk management. The two parts are as follows: Part 1: Planning for project risk management; andPart 2: Identify, analyse, action and monitor project risks. Part 1 deals with the...
The Importance of Framing and Alignment on a Project
The objective of the initial opportunity framing process is to ensure the right problem is tackled, from the right perspective, by the right people. Framing a project properly at the outset will assist in aligning the team towards success and reduce the probability...
The project management triangle conundrum: Selecting between Quality, Cost, Time
It is often said that good and fast projects are expensive, good and cheap projects are slow, and cheap and fast projects are of poor quality. It is our opinion that this dogma leads to a totally inadequate setting of the project framework and does not provide the...