Standardized Modularization: How to Engineer Efficiently for Onshore Facilities

In our new Expert Corner paper \’How to Engineer Efficiently for Onshore Facilities: Standardized Modularization\’, Catalin Eftimie explains how to benefit to the maximum of the modularization approach and strategies when executing large projects onshore.

The modularization concept for onshore facilities has become in the past few years a design choice (when applicable) for many EPCM contractors competing on a tight market driven by a fluctuating oil price. It responds to the producers expectations for a reduced schedule project delivery at a lower cost. While this approach has definite advantages in certain cases, it also poses some challenges that need to be considered carefully.

Advantages of modularization include less constraints on site, better quality and fabrication control, standardization and redundancy management, reduced schedule. It is particularly relevant for brownfield sites or projects where reuse of the facility is considered.

In terms of challenges, in particular, there is an actual design cost and a need to be much more mature on engineering early in the project. It also requires the ability to manage successfully more complex project setups with significant logistics and multi-site challenges. Successful modularization therefore requires a more mature design and project execution organization.

Read our new expert corner paper  \’How to Engineer Efficiently for Onshore Facilities: Standardized Modularization\’ to understand in more detail the advantages and challenges of modularization, in particular as it becomes a trend in the Oil & Gas industry in the current downturn.