Oil and Gas Project Management Controls Training Course

Course overview

Oil and gas projects operate against tightly coupled engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and production milestones. A delayed long-lead compressor, an unapproved scope change, or progress claimed ahead of installed quantities can quickly distort forecasts, consume contingency and affect first-oil or first-gas dates. Project managers, planners, cost engineers and package leads need controls that connect the baseline plan, cost estimate, risk register, progress measurement and management reporting into one defensible control system.

This five-day course develops practical project controls capability for upstream, midstream, LNG, refinery and petrochemical capital projects. Participants learn to structure a control account hierarchy; develop integrated WBS, CBS and schedule coding; establish cost and schedule baselines; apply earned value management; calculate schedule and cost variances; forecast estimate at completion; assess change impacts; and produce decision-focused monthly reports. The course addresses sector-specific control points including long-lead procurement, engineering deliverables, construction quantities, contractor progress claims, interface milestones and commissioning readiness.

Instruction combines concise technical sessions with a running oil and gas project case. Participants work with Primavera P6 schedule data, cost-control worksheets and reporting templates to analyse a project that is experiencing procurement slippage, productivity loss and potential scope growth. By the end of the programme, each participant produces a project controls pack containing a coded WBS/CBS, baseline logic review, earned value calculation, forecast, change-control assessment, risk-linked recovery actions and a management dashboard suitable for a monthly project review.

The course is designed for professionals who already work around project delivery and need stronger control of cost, schedule and performance data. It is equally useful for managers approving project decisions who need to challenge forecasts, progress claims and recovery plans with greater confidence.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Construct an oil and gas project WBS, CBS and control account structure for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning work
• Develop a schedule baseline with logic ties, coding structures, calendars and critical-path checks in Primavera P6
• Establish time-phased cost baselines, contingency allocation and cash-flow profiles for a capital project
• Apply earned value management to calculate PV, EV, AC, CPI, SPI, CV and SV from project performance data
• Forecast estimate at completion and completion dates using trend analysis, productivity data and remaining-work assessments
• Evaluate scope changes through impact assessment, change logs, approval gates and baseline revision controls
• Validate contractor progress claims using weighted milestones, installed quantities and rules of credit
• Produce a monthly project controls dashboard with exceptions, forecasts, risks, recovery actions and decision requests

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Project Controls Engineers — who integrate cost, schedule, progress and forecast information for capital projects
• Project Managers — who must challenge delivery forecasts and make timely decisions on cost and schedule exposure
• Planning and Scheduling Engineers — who build and maintain integrated EPC schedules and critical-path analyses
• Cost Engineers — who prepare cost reports, estimate-at-completion forecasts and contingency assessments
• Construction Managers — who need reliable quantity-based progress measurement and contractor performance evidence
• Package Managers and Engineering Leads — who manage long-lead equipment, technical deliverables and interface milestones

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working on projects, turnarounds or capital work packages and should understand basic project concepts such as scope, milestones, budgets, schedules, risks and change requests. Familiarity with Excel, including entering formulas and working with tables, is expected. Prior exposure to Primavera P6, Microsoft Project or a project cost report is helpful but not essential; the course explains the control logic before applying it. Participants do not need to be certified project managers, accountants or specialist schedulers, and no prior earned value certification is required.

Training methodology

The course uses instructor-led explanation followed by worked oil and gas project controls exercises each day. Participants analyse an EPC case involving delayed long-lead equipment, engineering backlog, construction productivity variance and emerging scope change. They build schedule and cost-control structures, review Primavera P6 outputs, calculate earned value metrics in Excel and test contractor progress evidence against rules of credit. Small-group review meetings simulate a monthly controls review. On the final day, participants assemble an application plan and present the key decisions from their completed project controls pack.

Course outline

Day 1: Project controls architecture for oil and gas capital projects

• Project lifecycle control points from concept select through commissioning and handover
• Integrated project controls roles across owner, EPC contractor and subcontractor organisations
• Work breakdown structure design for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning
• Cost breakdown structure, control accounts and responsibility assignment matrices
• Schedule coding standards for area, discipline, contractor, system and work package
• Basis of estimate, basis of schedule and baseline governance requirements
• Control account dictionaries and data-quality rules for integrated reporting

Workshop: Participants create a WBS, CBS, responsibility matrix and control-account dictionary for a gas processing facility case.

Day 2: Schedule planning, logic and critical-path control

• Primavera P6 activity structures, WBS hierarchy and activity coding
• Precedence diagramming logic for engineering, procurement, construction and pre-commissioning
• Calendars, constraints, lags and their effect on schedule integrity
• Critical path, near-critical path and total-float analysis
• Long-lead equipment schedules from requisition through delivery and installation
• Engineering deliverable registers and interface milestone management
• Schedule quality checks using logic, float, constraints and open-end activity tests

Workshop: Participants review a Primavera P6 schedule extract, identify logic and constraint defects, and issue a schedule assurance note.

Day 3: Cost control, progress measurement and earned value

• Time-phased budgets, commitment registers, actual costs and accruals
• Quantity-based progress measurement for civil, mechanical, piping and electrical work
• Weighted milestone methods for engineering deliverables and procurement packages
• Rules of credit and evidence requirements for contractor progress claims
• Planned value, earned value and actual cost data integration
• Cost and schedule variance calculations using CV, SV, CPI and SPI
• Estimate at completion methods, estimate to complete and cash-flow forecasting

Workshop: Participants calculate earned value metrics and an estimate at completion from a delayed compressor package and construction quantity dataset.

Day 4: Forecasting, risk, change and recovery control

• Root-cause analysis of variance using trend charts and performance narratives
• Risk-register integration with cost contingency and schedule reserve
• Quantitative schedule-risk concepts and confidence-date interpretation
• Change-control workflow from technical query through approval and baseline update
• Time-impact assessment for scope growth, design change and late vendor data
• Recovery planning through resequencing, acceleration, productivity and resource options
• Forecast challenge questions for project review boards and stage-gate meetings

Workshop: Participants assess a proposed scope change, prepare a time-and-cost impact statement, and recommend recovery actions for the project manager.

Day 5: Decision-quality reporting and controls implementation

• Monthly project controls report structure for owner and EPC governance
• Dashboard design using schedule, cost, progress, risk and change indicators
• S-curves, milestone trend analysis and forecast-at-completion visualisation
• Exception reporting and escalation thresholds for key project controls metrics
• Management of contractor reporting cycles, data dates and reconciliation meetings
• Assurance reviews, audit trails and baseline-change documentation
• Ninety-day project controls improvement plan for the participant's work environment

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a monthly project controls pack with dashboard, variance narrative, forecast, risk actions and executive decision requests.

Tools & standards covered

Oracle Primavera P6, Microsoft Excel, AACE International Recommended Practice 29R-03, ISO 21508 Earned Value Management

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions