Project management contract won for Isle of Grain LNG terminal Phase IIDecember 1Project management contract won for Isle of Grain LNG terminal Phase II RSK ENSR Project Services Ltd has signed a significant two-year framework agreement with National Grid Grain LNG to supply a range of project management services during development phase II of the Isle of Grain LNG importation terminal, the UK’s first fully functional modern LNG facility. The contract, estimated to be worth up to £13 million in sales, covers the supply of technical staff to form National Grid Grain LNG’s project management team, as well as a raft of professional services. “This is highly significant to both Project Services and the RSK ENSR Group as a whole,” said director David Pratt. For the past three years (phase I), RSK ENSR Project Services (nee RSK ENSR Shear Ltd) has been operating as a one-stop shop for Grain LNG’s project management needs by recruiting specialist and administrative staff (and managing their contractual arrangements), setting up and managing IT infrastructure and developing software tools. In addition, it has provided ad-hoc health and safety support, environmental consultancy and planning and risk management services. “It’s not unique supplying people – obviously agencies do it and larger consultants too – but the regular liaison service we provide and the flexible range of services and responsive support we offer to the Client in addition is, to my mind, fairly unique”, said Mr. Pratt. As a measure of the contract’s success, the number of RSK ENSR co-ordinated staff on the project has grown from 12 to over 60. RSK ENSR Project Services Ltd was formed as a direct result of working on the Grain LNG contract and now supplies a range of companies with bespoke, cost-effective and time saving project management support services such as recruitment, health and safety training, IT infrastructure support, software development and risk management. “We didn’t want to just function as a body shop that puts bums on seats; we wanted to be a conduit for Grain LNG to successfully resolve project management issues as they arise. It’s been an adaptive relationship that has evolved gradually,” noted Mr. Pratt. National Grid’s Isle of Grain project manager Paul Johnson said: “The fact that we have just renewed the contract indicates that the arrangement works. It is a cost-effective model for us and we ensure we get the right mix and match of expertise so we can mould the way we deliver the project”. “I would recommend this approach to other project engineers providing you know you can harness the expertise. All consultants are finding increasingly difficult to find the people – there is no bottomless pit as far as resources go and there are a lot of competing challenges and so we are seeing spiralling costs.” As a former peak shaving LNG plant, the Grain LNG importation terminal has been given a remarkable engineering facelift to become the UK’s first fully functional modern LNG facility. Currently operating with a capacity of 4.5 billion cubic meters (bcm), it will hold 13 bcm by 2008/2009. With Phase III likely to be commencing early in 2007, there will be an increasing need to recruit additional professional staff of all disciplines to join the project management team. Note to editors
For more information contact David Pratt RSK ENSR – one the UK’s most qualified and experienced health, safety and environmental consultants – works across the energy, property, water, manufacturing, government, and transport sectors. With 300 staff throughout 13 strategic locations in the UK, and with rapidly expanding operations in Europe, The Gulf and Caspian regions, RSK ENSR aims to provide global expertise on every client’s doorstep. RSK ENSR is one of the few environmental consultants to have achieved certification to the ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 standards for quality, environmental and health and safety management. |
