Project delay in public sector oil company

Kolkata: Efficient project management need not necessarily be the forte of every successful company. Take the case of a public sector oil company, also a member of the Fortune 500 club.

The company has been engaged in creating crude handling facilities somewhere on the East coast for the past several years, with the commissioning date slipping consistently. Originally, the facility was scheduled to be ready in October 2005. Since then, there have been several pos tponements and the last time it was heard that the commissioning would take place in May this year.

But now it appears that the commissioning will most probably be delayed by another few months, because the Bay of Bengal, with the onset of monsoon, will become choppy and, therefore, risky for undertaking any kind of project work. The delay means cost. The extent of cost overrun in this case, therefore, can be anybody’s guess.