The Project Engineer's Toolkit

As a result of 10+ years of gathering information about Oil and Gas Topsides Project Engineering, this book is now available to provide you with readily usable tools and techniques for performing your own responsibilities as a Project Engineer. As the Oil and Gas Industry strives for increased effectiveness and efficiency, it is important that we work smarter, not harder.

Book Layout

The book is split into 3 main sections:

- Soft Skills.

- Core Project Management.

- Engineering Disciplines.

Soft Skills

Soft skills are vital for a Project Engineer who will spend a significant part of his/her time dealing with people of various backgrounds, competencies and attitudes. Based on sound techniques these skills can be developed and practiced to great effect.

Core Project Management

This section explores the core project management competencies associated with Topsides Project Engineering and uses actual documentation examples to explain how to manage these areas.

The Engineering Disciplines

This section demystifies the Engineering Disciplines and provides insight from a Project Engineers viewpoint. These chapters will allow you to understand the work processes for each discipline, plus the inputs and the outputs so that you will be more effective in integrating all the engineering elements into your projects scopes.

Influences on the Content

Content has been influenced by the following three main sources:

30+ years Project Engineering/Management Experience

Having worked as a Project Engineer for over 30 year much hard won experience has been gained which has resulted in developing techniques that work in the "real world" Projects environment.

Project Management Bodies of Knowledge

As a member of the PMI and previously APM since 1999 my projects have been run using the principles contained in the project management industry books of knowledge. Many of these principles have been used in development of this book.

Toastmasters International

The skills and techniques in leadership and communication are influenced heavily from active membership of Toastmasters International for over 11 years. Toastmasters is a worldwide organisation of over 350,000 members promoting development of both leadership and communication skills. These techniques have been adapted for the requirements of Project Engineering within oil and gas engineering contractors.

Peter Cranston CEng, MIMechE, PMP, DTM has been a Project Engineer for over 30 years. After graduating from Edinburgh University with a BSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1981 he initially worked offshore as a remotely operated vehicle, ROV, pilot. His first real Project Engineering role was for a company building submarines for the tourist market which he describes as a "Boys own adventure in the Caribbean". He has worked for main engineering contractors in a Projects role for the majority of his career on a variety of topsides, drilling facilities and subsea projects ranging from multiple modifications programs through to off-shore modules and subsea tiebacks. As a member of Toastmasters International for 11+ years he gained the highest award of DTM and as area governor managed 5 toastmasters clubs in Scotland. A portion of the communication and leadership skills de-veloped at toastmasters has influenced the soft skills section of this book. Peter enjoys his current role of training and coaching the new generations of project personnel and seeing both their skills and confidence improving. He is married to Gwendoline, has two grown up children and lives south of Aberdeen, Scotland.