Project Management Contractor (PMC) Teams

Introduction
Many companies and individual plants in the downstream Oil & Gas industry lack the resources and the know how to implement medium and large projects and to manage the contractors which produce the project designs, procure the equipment and materials, construct the facilities, commission and often also start-up the new or revamped plants.
In order to bridge this gap between the Owner and the specialist companies who will execute the project it is common in the industry to appoint a Project Management Contractor (PMC) who will act as Owner's Representative vis-à-vis the EPC contractors.
 
PMC role
Simply stated the role of the PMC contractor is to manage the project for the Project Owner in his name. More specifically it means a hugely complex activity that includes:

• Defining a contracting strategy for the project.
• Select contractors for the various phases of the project.
• Agree and monitor project scope, cost, schedule and progress.
• Agree project procedures (quality plan, contracting plan, technical standards, etc) with contractors.
• Participate in meetings with suppliers and contractors.
• Participate in technical reviews such as HAZOP and PID review.
• Review and approve designs, drawings and other technical documentation.
• Review and approve/reject change orders.
• Prepare reports for Owners review.
• Liaise with Owners staff.
• Supervise construction, commissioning and start-up.

PMC teams
The size of the PMC team will obviously depend on the size of the project. For small to medium size projects (up to € 100-200 million) the team may have less than 10 members, some with expertise in project management and some discipline experts. The composition of the team will change during the various project phases.
In larger projects PMC teams may have more than 100 staff and the organization will mirror the organization of the EPC contractors. In this latter case one of the major international EPC contractors often is selected as PMC contractor.
PMC costs typically amount up to 3-5 % of total project costs.
Large international EPC contractors are usually not interested in a PMC role in small to medium size projects. They consider the number of man-hours involved not attractive and also claim that the high level of expertise necessary for this type of activity is not in balance with the size of the job.
Triple EEE has the capability to staff PMC teams for these small to medium size projects.
 
Triple EEE PMC team
The 'standard' PMC team will have the following members:

• Full time:
  • Project manager
  • Engineering manager/PM deputy
  • HSE manager
  • Cost Controller
  • Document controller/admin assistant
• Part time:
  • Process engineer
  • Civil engineer
  • Piping designer
  • Rotating equipment specialist
  • Electrical engineer
  • Instrument/control engineer
  • Procurement/contracting specialist
  • Construction manager
  • Commissioning manager