The Appraisal / Concept phases offer the most significant impact on the direction and return on investment for a project. They combine business strategy, engineering options and risk reduction. They consider a wide range of options and ultimately select one for development for which the principal drivers relating to environmental, safety and operability issues are then set and delineated.

ode‘s specific expertise in providing support services for the Appraisal and Select phases of offshore Oil & Gas Industry projects are set down within the Capability Fly Sheet “Field Development Strategies”. The Company also applies this skill set to a much more diverse range of projects and services for the energy industries, including:

• Onshore Oil & Gas field developments and reception and treatment facilities,
• Deep offshore and near shore wind farms, including power transmission & grid connection,
• Applications of new technologies,
• Research and Development programmes.

The services provided to clients include:

• Identification of and subsequent evaluation of concepts
• Assessment of regulatory considerations
• Commercial and technical opportunities and risks
• Constructability, operability and ultimate decommissioning issues
• Due diligence
• Preliminary environmental, safety and risk assessments
• Conceptual design of short-listed option(s)
• Development of contracting strategies
• Provision of initial cost estimates and through life cost comparisons
• Development of high level Execution Plans and associated Schedules
• Development of Basis of Design for project

Conventional consultancy in this respect normally takes the form of a scope defined by the Client and a report written by the Consultant. This can be an ineffective way to address complex issues. In response, ode has developed substantial expertise in addressing complex technical issues within a workshop basis. This involves those client staff with in-depth knowledge of the background and wider issues involved in a structured interrogation of the issues and project drivers. We may also include other consultants with specific relevant knowledge.

In this way, ode has developed an experience of working closely with Clients in the identification of potential development options and the subsequent screening analyses to mature these options through to a short list and final selection. A variety of screening, tools, some developed specifically in-house, are regularly applied. Your business matters to us and in understanding it better, we can more readily tailor our services to suit.

In many cases, we are requested by our Client to move through to the next phase of engineering on the selected development option. This normally entails a higher level of definition such as Front End / Basic Engineering – reference should be made to our parallel Capability Flysheet in this respect.

Specific project references are provided within: