Analyzing Complex Joint Venture Project Management System By Nanhai Petrochemicals Project Practice Of Construction Management

With USD4.2 billion, the Nanhai Petrochemicals Project has been the largest capital investment for a Sino-foreign joint venture project ever in P.R. China. The joint venture CNOOC and Shell Petrochemicals Company Limited, with partners of Royal Dutch Shell (listed No.1 of Global Top 500 Companies in 2009) and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), has built and been operating the petrochemicals complex. The project adopted the Project Management Contractor (PMC) model in its construction work. The PMC consortium BSF was registered in Hong Kong, comprising of Bechtel, Foster Weeler and the SEI, the largest engineering company in China. Bechtel took the lead in the PMC. The Project was completed through international standards of project management within the expected schedule and budget, and had met the world-class standards in HSE and quality, and it achieved successful startup by first feed-in. All these had made history in petrochemicals construction in China:The project won'Lu Ban Award'in 2008, and also was recognized as one of the Top construction projects over 60 years after the foundation of PR China.The author of this article took part in the construction management of the mega Nanhai Petrochemicals Project. Based on his experiences, he made a thorough analysis of the advanced management systems and approaches adopted by the reputed foreign project management companies of in the Pre-investment Decision, financing, contract negotiation, plan & management, cost control, risk management, compliance of domestic policies and regulation, governmental permitting and supervision, sustainable development strategies, as well as the lessons learnt for Chinese companies in working with foreign companies. All these will provide a very good case study and reference for large scale domestic enterprises that are technologically intensive or capitally intensive, particularly petrochemicals companies with high level of risks in their competition domestically or internationally, or in construction management of large scale joint venture projects.