Alan Jackson FRICS MACostE
email: alan.jackson@amec.com
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ALLIANCE CONTRACTING
CAPABILITY
Capable of providing advice on, management of, or personally undertaking the preparation of contract strategies pre-qualification of tenderers, preparation of tender documentation, tender evaluation, placement of contracts and the administration of all work associated with onshore and offshore Petrochemical projects, including establishing and organising Alliance relationships.
PROJECT EXPERIENCE
Project experience includes the full scope of contract engineering duties including offshore platforms and onshore refineries, chemical plants and refinery shutdowns for B.P, Shell, Marathon, Total and Conoco including Britannia and Shearwater platforms undertaken on an alliance basis.
Contract types include lump sum, reimbursable and measure and value (Bills of Quantities/schedules of rates) using published forms, client specific forms and production of tailor made terms and conditions. Alliance contracting philosophies developed on Britannia and Shearwater platforms including the setting targets and establishing working relationships. Advice on alliance methods provided to Exxon, BFNL and BAA.
ALLIANCE CONCEPT
The prospect of co-operative contracting was considered by both Latham in the building industry and the CRINE initiative in the offshore oil industry. It was in this latter industry that the concept was fully developed in the form of alliance contracting.
Although the two terms are interchangeable, within the Petrochemical industry an Alliance is usually used to describe an arrangement for a single project whilst partnering is used to describe an arrangement for a number of projects.
An Alliance usually comprises the client, the design contractor and a number of fabrication contractors and is structured in such a way as will allow all members of an Alliance to gain a benefit from the success of the whole project, rather than each party seeking its own individual gain at the expense of others and to the detriment of the project.
Although simple in concept the success of an Alliance lies in the detail of the mechanisms which are unique to each Alliance. Important aspects of an Alliance which require careful consideration include:
Choice of Alliance partners
Methods of setting up the Alliance
Alliance behaviours and training
Alliance agreements
Relationship between the Alliance Agreement and the individual Works Contracts
Choice and formulation of risk and reward mechanisms
Apportionment of risk and reward
The setting of acceptance criteria
Establishing a criteria for change to the work and the risk and reward mechanisms
The Britannia and Shearwater projects both proved that Alliances can be a very effective way to undertake large complex projects especially when such projects require a tight project schedule and/or where there will be an overlap between the phases of design, construction, hook-up and commissioning.
