Causes of Handover Delays in Iranian Oil Pipeline Projects

During last few years, oil pipeline construction projects in Iran have mostly experienced a delayed start of operation and final completion. There are a number of reasons for this problem, some of which are listed in this paper based on their importance according to each of the project participants’ points of view, i.e., the owner, consultant and the contractor. This study reviews challenges in delivering Iranian Oil pipeline projects by focusing on the main key deliverable of the construction phase; i.e., Operations Acceptance , and the issue of resolving commissioning and operation defects. Literature review, case studies, and some interviews with involved managers and operation defects. Literature review, case studies, and some interviews with involved managers and experts were used in order to identify causes of delays. A survey was conducted to analyze the probability of occurrence and severity of thirty-six (36) identified causes of delays. The importance index of each cause is calculated as a product of both frequency and severity indices of each cause. Comparing importance rankings, the degree of agreement or disagreement between each two groups of parties is measured too. The field survey included seventy-four (74) managers, directors, and experts of consultants, contractors, and the owner companies. 70% of all participants indicated that the average percentages of delay for obtaining commissioning and final operation acceptances are respectively 50%-70% and 70%-100% of the original duration. The owner-related factors: poor per-project planning and unrealistic preliminary estimates were identified as the most important causes of delay. Using literature review and research findings, some remedial action plans, addressing above issues, are presented in order to reduce future handover delays in such projects.

Keywords:

Oil pipeline projects , delay causes , Iran