Delivering large‑scale LNG and pipeline projects over many years offers a rare insight into what genuinely improves outcomes and what quietly disturbs them. Drawing on long‑term experience, several practical lessons stand out that, in our opinion, are highly transferable across the global Oil & Gas sector.

Project lifecycle support improves readiness and outcomes

Early involvement in the project lifecycle encourages the seamless integration with delivery teams, understanding contractual structures from the outset, and aligning with project objectives before systems and behaviours become embedded. The starting point of the lifecycle is the crucial time to instil best-in-class ways of working and behaviours within the delivery team to set the project up for success.

Crucially, this early positioning enables the capture and analysis of high-quality project data and records from day one, including contemporaneous schedule updates, forensic analysis, cost drivers, scope changes, and risk events. With this information in hand, owners and contractors are better supported to make timely, informed and evidence-based decisions that serve both the immediate project needs and longer-term commercial objectives. Early engagement shifts the dynamic from reactive problem-solving to proactive project delivery.

It is our opinion that supporting owners and contractors with knowledge, tools and expertise to scrutinise the contract obligations and requirements, project data and records throughout the full project lifecycle, not just at the moment of dispute, is significantly advantageous should formal claims, arbitration, or litigation become necessary. This includes the implementation of systems that allow for the records and data developed and obtained at the various project worksites across the globe to be collated, digested, and, where appropriate, reported to provide a clear understanding of the progress of the work, delay events, and known issues across the entirety of the scope.

Continuous assessment of each party’s position encourages real-time entitlement assessment, supporting owners and contractors understanding of whether they genuinely have a “leg to stand on” before pursuing a claim. This allows for the decisions to be based on facts supported by documented evidence, records and contractual entitlements rather than on assumptions or pressure from project stress. Similarly, each party allows itself the opportunity to appropriately critique the validity of each other’s position, providing confidence in their final standpoint for relief and reimbursement or, where appropriate, firm and fair rejection. Preparation built gradually over time is far more effective than reconstruction after the event.

Ongoing HKA support will mean their familiarity with the project context, and construction-focused expertise promotes the timely and pragmatic resolution of issues, helping to preserve cash flow and avoid delays to progress.

This approach benefits both parties as a strong, fact-based assessment of claims submitted and/or received reduces the number of spurious claims, builds confidence that each claim is considered fairly, reduces contention, and increases collaboration.

Proactive claims avoidance through peremptory contract management protects the contract price

Staying ahead of change events where entitlement is weak or invalid directly protects the contract price. In Oil & Gas projects, due to their scale and complexity, it is not uncommon to see contract values increase by 20% or more, through claims and variations (as identified in HKA’s CRUX Insight reports).

However, our experience shows that implementing proactive claims avoidance together with a ‘no change unless for safety or increased product output’ mentality within the engineering disciplines throughout the project lifecycle significantly reduces this exposure. This risk reduction experienced limited cost creep to an average of 5% of the approved contract value, compared to an oil and gas industry norm of 20-25%.

This approach benefits all parties by:

• Reducing disputes
• Improving commercial predictability
• Maintaining focus on delivery rather than escalation

Project budgets and commercial outturn forecasts also benefit from timely, accurate assessment of contractual entitlement and the related cost and schedule impacts. This helps parties make informed decisions, avoid substantial legal costs from claims escalated to arbitration or litigation, and reduce the distraction these disputes create for project delivery.

Moving to proactive delay management

Too often, delay analysis is undertaken long after problems have already crystallised. On complex, fast-moving projects, this approach limits its value.

A more effective strategy is to use regular, structured delay analysis in line with monthly project reporting. The benefit is the identification of causation and culpability, allowing the contractor to recover potential costs and identify extensions to key dates close to the event. It also encourages the company to work with the contractor to mitigate schedule slippage and avoid distractions from ongoing cost claims that may hold no merit.

In a past commission (an LNG project constructed throughout COVID-19), HKA undertook proactive delay analysis to support informed conversations and better project control, rather than a post event dispute resolution methodology..

Before any proactive delay management was implemented on the project, HKA assisted the client in reviewing the CPM Schedule, which uncovered the following seven issues:

• A lack of detail within the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Missing work scope
• Missing logic and dependencies
• High levels of float
• The use of ‘hard’ constraints
• Negative float
• No clear or identifiable critical path

The seven problems above interweave and can have a compounding effect, potentially rippling throughout a CPM Schedule. HKA’s delay team had prior experience working in Project Controls for large Oil and Gas organisations. It resolved the initial schedule issues with industry-specific knowledge, setting up a robust CPM Schedule that could respond dynamically to changes.

The LNG project was constructed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic using fabrication yards and suppliers from over a dozen countries spanning four continents. HKA assisted the client with a visual timeline of events related to COVID-19 delays, tracking ongoing issues such as supply chain disruption, labour shortages, quarantine requirements, site closures, permitting and approvals, etc.

During the project, the timeline provided the teams with key project-specific COVID-19 information and updates. Upon completion, the timeline outlined how COVID-19 spread globally and when and where it affected the project.

Each month, a detailed assessment was conducted on the critical and near-critical paths of each Monthly Updated CPM Schedule. The assessment included a review of actual and forecasted delays, extended activity durations, changes to work sequences and determination of critical delays in the period. With each assessment, a clearer picture emerged of where, and whether, critical delays occurred across engineering, procurement, fabrication, logistics, construction, and commissioning on the project.

Causation analysis was used in conjunction with the critical path assessment, drawing on contemporary evidence and comparative discipline histogram development to analyse resources and productivity for the critical work scopes, to ensure that any delay assessments were both reasonable and consistent with the factual circumstances.

Working on a live project enabled access to key members of the Contract Management, Project Controls, Site Management, and Logistics teams as and when delays occurred. This source of knowledge proved invaluable at the time, given the extent of COVID-19 delays and the contemporary evidence needed to be collated, which might otherwise have been lost if analysis had been undertaken later.

Breaking down silos improves project performance

On large infrastructure and Oil & Gas projects, the scale and complexity of delivery can naturally create challenges around coordination. Commercial, planning, engineering, and construction teams often work at pace and in parallel with different priorities and expertise. This approach can limit visibility across disciplines and make alignment more difficult.

Creating stronger connections between key stakeholders across these functions can materially improve project outcomes. Greater cross‑disciplinary collaboration can help to:

• Reduce the risk of duplicated effort
• Ensure the right expertise is involved in decisions at the right time
• Improve consistency in messaging, records, and documentation
• Prevent undermining the respective positions of the parties

By encouraging clearer communication and alignment between disciplines, the parties are better positioned to identify risks earlier and manage them in a more coordinated way, helping to minimise the potential for rework, misalignment, or issues that may otherwise crystallise later in the project lifecycle.

This cross-disciplinary collaboration is specifically important when addressing claims and bringing awareness of the implications of siloed working. To overcome siloed working, projects benefit from a contract performance management mindset, where the whole delivery team is responsible for the commercial, quality and safety outcomes. This is further instilled and maintained by continuous training, which should not focus solely on contract management, but rather also encompass a ‘no change’ mantra unless it’s commercially beneficial or safety-driven during detailed design engineering, for example.

Without a unified project team understanding of arresting scope creep, managing contention issues, effective and succinct correspondence with other parties and management of records, a position of leverage and/or entitlement can be undermined. The ways of working discussed above that augment the effectiveness of strong and efficient contract and claims management to the wider organisation invariably improve the project team’s understanding of how potential claims and disputes are avoided and the project’s commercial outturn.

Labour constraints must be planned for

In the pipeline sector in particular, labour availability remains one of the most critical constraints. In many regions, there simply aren’t enough skilled workers to meet demand, and this is not a problem that money alone can solve.

Successful contractors recognise this reality early and factor it into planning and scheduling assumptions. Managing labour constraints requires:

• Realistic programme development
• Transparent communication with project stakeholders
• Acceptance that some risks must be managed, not eliminated

Acknowledging labour limitations upfront leads to more resilient schedules and more credible project plans and subsequently reduced the probability of claims related to the requirements for temporary foreign workers, incentive schemes and productivity issues

Conclusion

Proactive, disciplined project delivery ultimately supports clients in being better positioned to achieve preferred outcomes on complex Oil & Gas projects. Early engagement, robust data capture, proactive claims and delay management, contractual preparedness and strong cross-functional alignment all work together to create a more controlled, transparent, and resilient delivery environment.

For owners and contractors alike, the shift from reactive dispute resolution to proactive dispute avoidance is critical. Those who invest in the right behaviours, systems, and expertise from the outset are better positioned to protect value, reduce contention, and maintain focus on delivery rather than distraction.

In an industry defined by scale and complexity, these lessons are essential to achieving reliable, commercially sound outcomes.

About the authors

Stephen Mills has over 15 years’ experience in the construction industry, working as a planning engineer and site manager for both main contractors and sub-contractors. His hands-on knowledge of the Liquefied Natural Gas, Rail and Construction industries heavily influences his proficiency as a delay analyst and his familiarity with various standard forms of contract.

Huw Davies has worked on high-value international oil and gas and development projects, managing EPC contracts and advising on claims entitlement across complex, multi-jurisdictional frameworks. He combines hands-on delay and quantum analysis experience with specialist legal training, supported by dual LLMs in Construction Law & Adjudication and Energy & Environmental Law.

Agnieszka Duczkowska is a contracts and disputes specialist with nearly 15 years of international experience, supported by formal legal training in construction and engineering law. She combines strong contract interpretation and dispute strategy skills with expertise in contract administration, project controls, and claims advisory across major infrastructure sectors. She has advised clients across diverse sectors—including oil and gas, industrial facilities, transportation, and buildings—in multiple jurisdictions (UK, Canada, Qatar, Serbia, Belarus, and Russia), bringing a strong understanding of cross-border legal and commercial frameworks.

Chris Jackson has over 15 years’ experience across the full project lifecycle, with a background spanning specialist subcontractors through to global EPCM organisations. He has delivered projects across the UK, Australia, Sweden, Canada, KSA, and the Netherlands. Chris brings extensive expertise across sectors including oil and gas, large-scale infrastructure, data centres, and commercial construction. He has a strong track record in managing complex change, successfully defending high-value claims, and engaging effectively with stakeholders from site level through to senior leadership.

Chris Pedersen is a Commercial, Contracts and Claims Manager with over 45 years of experience in strategic contracting, commercial, financial, claims and legal procedures on major projects in the oil and gas, civil engineering and heavy process engineering industries. He has an extensive track record in contract management, including developing contracting strategies, delivering projects on time and within budget, and leading business units to improve resource utilisation, profitability, and management processes.

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