02.13.2017
E&P Magazine featured Stampede as its February 2017 cover story on “Innovation through Collaboration.” The article examined how Hess and Heerema Marine Contractors collaborated to install 12 piles in 12 days leveraging Lean thinking to create value and improve safety, quality, delivery and cost.
Titled “Better together,” the article stated, “Careful preparation and collaboration deliver Gulf of Mexico installation win for Hess and Heerema Marine Contractors.” The story described how Hess is leveraging Lean and using the lessons learned and efficiencies gained to meet its goal of bringing first oil production to the Stampede oil and gas development in the GoM in 2018.
Sanctioned in 2014, the project successfully passed its first physical milestone in late November 2015 when the first of 12 120-m-long (395-ft-long) anchor piles were successfully hammered 114 m (375 ft) into the soft clay seabed. Twelve days later, installation of the final pile was completed, four days earlier than planned. That four-day savings was made possible through the use of core Lean principles: meticulous planning to identify all waste, eliminating that waste and engaging everyone involved on the project early and often. Indeed, the time saved was all the more notable—and arguably greater—given the team’s ability to safely and successfully execute the job despite unforeseen, challenging and severe loop current conditions that would have resulted in substantial downtime.
By engaging with its project contractors early and often, Hess is able to identify and put in mitigation measures before an issue snowballs into a monumental delay.
“Early engagement with the contractors started at the beginning of 2013,” said Steve Whitaker, project director of the Stampede Deepwater Development for Hess. “We set ourselves on what we called a P0 schedule; it’s where we’ve taken the contingencies out…. What it does from a project management perspective is give us great line of sight of all potential problems that could come at us before they do.”
By the time the project reached sanction in 2014, through its engagement with its project co-owners and with the contractors, everybody was aligned internally, he added. “We have a very open and transparent way of working here. The co-owners are involved on a very regular basis with the team, and we are leaning forward with the schedule where we try to address issues as they come forward…. We’ve maintained that schedule over these four years.”
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