GP downside sized by 1/3- but why are there so many GP staff with nothing to do? How long Will GP keep saying they are retaining their bench for when Capex comes?
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Liza 1 is GP's legacy
@3xeo+1akwgi2a
At least truck manufacturers from Volvo to Wuling have test drivers, at the minimum someone (if not all) in their team who knows how to drive and has driven a truck before. They are CAPABLE of making a product that can satisfy the promised performance to their end users.
What GP/EMDC does is only piecewise testing the components of that 'truck' ie. engine in Italy, the headlights in Japan, cruise-control somewhere in China and all those exotic locations. And they claimed that they delivered a complete working 'truck' just by introducing 'gasoline' (hydrocarbon) and start the engine? Unbelievable!
Let the GP team who built the truck drives long haul for a period of time and try to earn money from that subpar designs. This GP/EMDC model is a waste of money!
This thread reminds me of truck drivers bi—g about the design of their truck. They’ve never conceptualized, designed or built a truck, but they’re convinced they’re the expert.
Just drive the damn truck and leave the heavy lifting to someone else.
In 2008-2009 EMDC (previous GP) hired tons of engineers fresh out of college and worked them in tandem with 3rd party contractors and few employees, very little of them had experience supporting operations assets as engineers. The results were bloated, overpriced projects which still required some modifications to make it work to minimum design nameplate capacity. These mistakes were multiplied across projects under the credo "Design 1 Build Many" because they never learn! Very hefty cost for funding their business class travel to Tuscany for f-t but receiving subpar working equipment!
How could they have opportunity to learn from mistakes if they were never in positions to support operating assets they've once designed? Make them operate the assets during the warranty period! Let them understand the consequence of their design and decision.
Just love how the 1 GP person comments how busy they/ value they bring. But types the message during work hours! Were you taking a break from ppt or waiting for your contractor to finish a report?
GP has outlived its usefulness. So tired of hearing how EM created EMDC in 1999 - how a great strategic move that was. Yes. We all agree, it WAS a good idea- but created a monster. Our thinking needs to evolve and we should be evaluating cost and let’s face it. GP costs ALOT! Is it worth it?? Nope. Only people who feel GP juice is worth the squeeze is GP. Does UOG ever say, let’s engage GP, they are helpful. Sorry- but time to move on- #SaveEM-FireGP.
No one out-does GP doing business with itself. Missed opportunity to really gut the org- but then again, most major work is on hold / canceled - but good to keep 7 or 8 VPs.
For those saying leave it to EPCs to do you’re re--rded
You think the nepotism is bad in other orgs, GP is the worst. Never seen so many trailing spouses and exec children in the roost. Agree, GP makes own complexities, possesses very very little technical knowledge and is non cost competitive in the broader market (pmt and tic).
Once all the engineers are fired how will global projects protect its people in the ranking? They usually push down engineers so they can put project management types highly ranked. So much for the lie that ranking isn’t based on role.
I always laugh when people like @1rjq+1akwgi2a say they save the company millions. In their minds they are so special that if they weren’t there the company would have paid more. Go ahead and claim it on your PDS but you aren’t fooling anyone here.
Yall GP id--ts make your own complexities.
What a bunch of bitter, bitter trolls on here.
But, that's OK. My GP job (U/S) is awesome... For the relative pittance of my salary (which, I charge over 1/2 to other companies and is ALL reimbursable back in produced oil), I can see tangible positives I've had in saving the company 10s of millions of $$$.
I'm sorry that you must have terrible jobs and no idea the complexity of large U/S projects... But, that's to your own detriment.
On the first Guyana FPSO the claim was they were building to industry spec and with a light project team. I never could figure out why there was a near constant stream of business trippers on top of the project team going to Europe to support the light touch. What were they all doing? I can tell you not working hard. They worked fewer than 8 hours a day and went on weekend trips all over Europe.
Trolls, trolls, trolls. LOL. Same old stories over and over, all fantasies with no basis in fact. Need to come up with some new material.
BTW, I guess any country in Africa is good enough if you are just making stuff up, but the minor legal issue is in Nigeria, not Angola. Not that it matters to you. Hahahahaha
The Permian Delaware facility that is empty, along with an uncompleted Wink to Webster pipeline (operational yet 1 million barrels day below the planned and designed capacity with numerous segments and connections that will never be completed) and the Wink terminal we bought and upgraded at 1/3 capacity. All brought to you by GP and the current XTO America's Infrastructure VP. Along with Delaware drilling cost and time table overruns, and now the subject of SEC investigation. This is our top 10%, the best and the brightest of us all, doing their finest work. As one poster mentioned in a prior forum, "Permian Delaware, The Kearl of the South".
GP qualifications: PowerPoint skills to the maximum; modifying PP presentations to suit upper management; modifying the economics, time tables, costs, etc. To compensate for what Management wants them to look like and to modify same throughout the project so it appears that the project is on schedule and below cost; say yes to the Mgmt. All the time; manage upwards; spy on the project teams and report back to Mgmt.; drink XOM Mgmt. Kool Aid all day long; conduct update meetings and have loads of conference calls; blame all failures on the project team.
If GP employees are so valuable and have such great skills that are marketable elsewhere as one poster indicated then please leave this company as it will save us all in the field a lot of time and money.
GP has brought you great projects in the past like: Kearl; Permian, The Kearl of the South; Singapore upgrades; The canceled Chinese LNG; many refinery upgrades all canceled; and the list goes on and on.
GP was and is nothing more than a centrally located PowerPoint machine to ensure the top 10%, who are the best and the brightest of us all, maintained CONTROL AND POWER over projects and did whatever the GP master and g-d podders wanted to hear and do. They are the ultimate wizards behind the curtain.
As an added bonus, GP has been run in the past by our esteemed F&L President and our worldwide Refinery VP. All the knowledge gained as GP graduates I am ceryain they have put to use on our famous Synergy Fuel and all the refineries which will be shuttered, turned into terminals and divested (good luck finding a buyer).
So those in GP have nothing to do now and for years to come. Their destruction is evident in all the failed projects of the past. And with only maintenance CAPEX and OPEX at a bare minimum what can they possibly be doing now.
GP brought you Angola investigation and the Permian SEC investigation and class action lawsuits. They need to be done away with and as several posters have already indicated all their work can be done in the field with much lower costs, better time tables and done more efficiently.
@tal+1akwgi2a
How did that currently near empty Delaware Texas facility (that the geologists warned not to build) turn out versus budget? Are those the skills you speak of? PowerPoint presentations to convince people of bad ideas?
This is a pitiful, poor management strategy. There should be a very lean PM group. When large capex is needed they can pull from technical engineering crews at various sites. There should be a number of technical staff who can manage projects and do technical engineering as well. The other on the team can pick up slack. There are not many work pieces that “must be done right now”. There’s a difference between nice to have and need to have. There are very few need to haves and when those come up people can be put on them in a hurry. Better yet, get rid of all XOM PM’s and hire an epc.
Can anyone chime in some example projects from GP? I was under the assumption each business line has their own mini projects org.
This is a very uninformed post, a few thoughts before ignore the responses:
1) my part of GP is exceptionally busy, so I don't relate to the subject title to begin with.
2) large, capital projects are extremely difficult, and without an effective Operator team in place... A large mishap greatly outweighs and almost insignificant PMT costs. There was a reason we formed EMDC and stripped EMPC of large projects in the U/S.
3) no offense to the rest of you, but GP skills are actually marketable to other industries. I mean, you can mock the fact we actually can apply around AND easily get jobs... But, we will be the ones laughing as you are left holding that final bag...
@stu+1akwgi2a
So true. If you want to know why the Permian went so far off budget. XTO had 4 facilities engineers that actually did design, AFE generation, and project management. When these bozos came in that number went up to 114, and all they do is direct contractors.
I remember listening to “accomplishments” during PADP reviews thinking to myself, “wait that’s an actual job here and not a single task of a broader engineering role.”
Global Projects. Designing the DPs/GPs for the best project design technology. The designers then spend all their time and effort figure out what to do inorder to get the costs down by getting approval to deviate from those practices.
GPs sit around applying for jobs elsewhere all day.
Worse productivity per buck than EMRE. Useless organisation.
Cause it takes a special skill set to tell an EPC contractor to do the work. I mean, not everyone can sit back and not do work. Those ppt skills of reporting someone else’s work - That’s Winning!