26 October 2015

Costain Natural Resources’ Shane Forth has been spreading the word about Costain’s project management expertise to the oil and gas industry.

Shane, Project Management Office (PMO) Director, was one of 15 speakers at the Global EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) Project Management Forum for the Energy Industry organised by OPEXC Energy and held recently in Berlin. Others included leading academics, major EPC contractors and energy industry customers from around the world.

“The purpose was to discuss the complexities and best practice solutions for successful and timely delivery of EPC projects in the oil and gas industry,” said Shane. “My particular topic was the technical integrity of the project schedule. It was well received and attracted some good questions, and was linked by a number of subsequent speakers to their own topics such as oil price fluctuations, risk management and front end engineering design.

“Delegates were also very interested to hear during the panel debate how PMO adds value to an organisation.”

Shane also delivered an interactive workshop to 60 delegates at a forum in London this month on Cost Estimation and Project Controls for the Oil and Gas Industry. Entitled ‘Late Again! - How Effective are Your Project Schedules and Critical Path Analysis Methods in Managing Time?’, the workshop was based on research carried out by Shane for his MSc on Project Management, which in 2013 won the Association for Project Management’s Geoffrey Trimble Award for best Master’s postgraduate dissertation.

Under Shane’s guidance, delegates divided into teams to consider factors that can impact the development and effectiveness of the project schedule and look at the benefits of critical path analysis.

“Going beyond a spoken presentation is a new challenge for me,” admitted Shane, who has been a regular speaker at events like conferences and workshops for the past 20 years. He says it brings real benefits to the business. “These events allow us to highlight Costain’s capability and technology offering to people who may not know us well.”

But being a speaker is also good for the individual. “It has helped me improve my confidence, and also enabled me to meet some of the founding fathers of project management. I encourage all my team to do it so that they too can benefit from the personal and career development benefits it brings.”

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