I am currently part of a group doing the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) of an Offshore Platform in China.

To provide a brief on the project, there are two (2) existing platforms built more than a decade ago, owned and operated by an American oil company. All standards used in the construction and design of the platform were based on North American standards. A few years ago, the company was sold to a Chinese consortium. During the operation and management of the Chinese owners, there were some minute upgrades done on the platform. For some reasons, the original equipment manufacturers were not appointed as vendor for the upgrades, the result, a mixed up of standards and specifications. Much worse, the drawings and documentation for the platform were not updated.

Now that the Chinese consortium decided to construct more platforms, two (2) adjacent to the existing platforms to make a cluster of four(4) platforms and a totally new platform cluster about five(5) kilometres away.

It is on the additional two (2) adjacent platforms that I am involved in the FEED. This is where the nightmare began.

As I have said previously, the existing platforms were basically constructed using North American standards (NEC, NFPA and NEMA). Our company is basically inclined into the IEC standard type of construction. Project estimates offered to the client were actually based on IEC standards.

Coming up... the nightmares enumerated!