Project management is probably not a hot topic on the average person’s reading list. In today’s complex world though, project management is a really hot topic. Modern projects are no longer about stacking up a pile of bricks, putting out a shiny silver mailbox and planting a few petunias. What is needed in terms of construction, communication and environment are so complex that specialty tools and skills are required to bring modern mega projects to life.
According to the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Book of Knowledge, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations. The bottom line is that the ways in which a job gets done are actually as important as completing the work, and a project manager is responsible for it all.
Project managers are made not born, and the Project Management Institute (PMI) founded in the US in 1969 plays an essential role in their development. To date, there are nearly 100,000 PMI members in 125 countries and 200 PMI chapters worldwide. The PMI Arabian Gulf Chapter (AGC) was formed in August 1992 and has seen substantial growth since then, currently boasting nearly 1,000 members.
PMI-AGC is active in Saudi Arabia, in the Gulf countries and internationally. At an international level, annually PMI makes an award for the project chosen from amongst all global submissions that it considers to be the Project of the Year. For 2004, the three finalists for PMI Project of the Year were The Los Alamos County Defensible Space Project, Denver’s New International Runway Project and Saudi Aramco’s Haradh Gas Plant Project. Haradh won.
PMI-AGC held an event on Sunday night at Sunset Beach Resort to celebrate the win and present the PMI Project of the Year trophy to Abdallah S. Jum’ah, president and CEO, Saudi Aramco. Noting that this is the second time that Saudi Aramco has won PMI’s international Project of the Year Award, Salem H. Shaheen, president, PMI AGC, and president and CEO, Petrolube, Saudi Aramco, said: “These awards are a reflection of Saudi Aramco’s investment in the Human Resources of the Project Management, Engineering and Operation staff, to develop the required best in class expertise along with Contractors’ resources. What we are experiencing in the last 10 years is continuous improvement in all areas of Project Delivery.”
Ali A. Al-Ajmi, Saudi Aramco’s vice president, Project Management, explained the scope of the project, which in part led to Haradh Gas Plant winning the PMI award.
“This gas plant is one of the largest in the world, and critical to the Saudi Arabian economy, processing 1.6 billion standard cubic feet of gas and 170,000 barrels of condensate per day,” Al-Ajmi said. “The project included all of the gas gathering, gas transmission, product pipelines and a bachelor quarters for 1,000 operations, maintenance and other personnel.”
According to Al-Ajmi the project installed 540 km of pipelines and 750 km of in plant piping, 4,300 km of cable, 310,000 km of fiber-optic cable and 22,000 tons of structural steel. The work was engineered on four different continents and constructed with a peak work force of over 10,000 workers from 36 countries around the world. This work force completed 49 million man-hours without a single lost time incident. The project procured locally manufactured materials valued at $315 million, and all construction work was done by Saudi contractors. In a sign of outstanding management, the project was completed six months ahead of schedule and 27 percent below the original budget.
“For the company, this award acknowledges our place as one of the world’s best ‘Managers of Projects,’ and provides a benchmark for our current and future projects to improve upon,” commented al-Ajmi. “For the country, it demonstrates our people’s ability as world class managers, and our value as a member of the world community, providing well deserved and welcome publicity. And for the world, I believe this award sends a message that Saudi Aramco and Saudi Arabia are serious about providing oil to the world, and very capable of delivering on our promises.”
Stepping up to the podium after accepting the award on behalf of Saudi Aramco and the Haradh Gas Plant Project team, Jum’ah was clearly pleased but pensive as well.
“Our successes in Haradh, in Hawiyah, in Shaybah and in Qatif, didn’t come because they were easy. We had to go the hard way. We learned from our mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes. But I think the great thing is that we tended not to repeat the same mistake. Learn from it but not repeat it. Then learn from successes and build over successes. This is the secret of continuing excellence,” Jum’ah remarked.
“Mega projects have become a characteristic of Saudi Aramco and I think they are needed,” he continued. “Saudi Arabia remains a cornerstone for the oil industry. With 261 billion barrels of conventional oil in Saudi Arabia the world is looking at us to deliver. Thank God we have been able to deliver. I can tell you that in our history there was not a single barrel that was promised on a certain date to any customer in the four corners of the world that was not delivered on that date. We have promised, we have promised our shareholder, which is the government, and we have promised our customers worldwide that we will continue to be the most reliable supplier of crude oil anywhere in the world.”
He added, “Yes, we are mostly Saudized. We are 80 percent Saudized but we still draw on the expertise of young men and women from the four corners of the world. We have over 50 nationalities in Saudi Aramco and we will continue to tap those resources because really we want to provide the best. Saudization is Saudi Aramco and Saudi Aramco is not an end in itself. Saudization is a means also to be able to contribute to the health of the world. I think one final word is as you have seen in our performance as a company, the representative young people of Saudi Arabia are not a bunch of killers and failures. The real representatives of the young people of Saudi Arabia are these people who are working silently, diligently and with professionalism. They feel a pride to be very important to the health of the international community. They also feel the burden of responsibility that they must deliver and they must work for the construction and not the destruction of the world. These are the real people.”