Ronald L. Smith

Director

 

Summary

Mr. Smith brings well-founded project controls experience on Oil & Gas, Petrochemical and Infrastructure projects, from the conceptual and pre-planning stage through startup, commissioning and close-out.

He spent many years developing front-end execution strategies for major capital projects, overseeing the reduction in overall project execution cycle times by 25% from historical norms. He uses his wide knowledge of the overall Project Delivery System’s gates process, benchmarking, metrics applications and best in class performance expectations to benefit clients as well. This was applied through his leadership of the Jubail, Saudi Arabia petrochemical complex Project Health Check, which reviewed, documented and presented an expert assessment of the internal and external factors impacting the project’s successful execution and completion.

Mr. Smith manages and oversees project controls for Pre-FEED, FEED, and EPCm projects, and has been responsible for project planning and scheduling, cost control, and bid proposals cost estimating.

 

Experience

• Engineering and Construction Claims

• Delay & Disruption

• Loss of Productivity

• Extensions of Time (EOT)

• Change Order Negotiations

• Project Controls

• Cost

• Scheduling

• Estimating

• Proposals Preparation

• Capital Planning

• Pre-FEED Phase

• FEED Phase

• EPC Execution Phase

• Project Close-Out

• Project Benchmarking

• Project Health Reviews

 

Industry Sectors

• Refining

• Petrochemicals

• Gas Processing              

• Ethane Crackers

• Catalytic Reforming

• Aromatics

• Metathesis Units

• Seawater Injection

• Crude Oil Production

• Brownfield Projects

• Gas Oil Separation Plants (GOSP)

• NGL (Natural Gas Liquids) Recovery

• Liquified Natural Gas (LNG)

 

Previous Positions

• JGC America, Inc., Senior Project Controls Manager

• Al Shuaibi Consulting Engineers, Senior Consultant

• Saudi Aramco/Sumitomo Chemical, Senior Consultant

• EC Harris Saudi Arabian International, Project Controls Manager/Deputy Country Manager; Claims Specialist/Contract Administrator

• Saudi Aramco, Project Controls Specialist; Supervisor; Scheduling Engineer

• Fluor Engineers and Constructors, Lead Field Scheduling Engineer

 

Education and Certifications

• BS Building Construction, University of Florida

• Member, American Association of Cost Engineers, Houston Gulf Coast Section

• Past Member, American Association of Cost Engineers, Arabian Gulf Chapter

• Past Member, Project Management Institute/College of Scheduling

 

Representative Project Experience

• Far East Refinery Arbitration: Project Management advisory services regarding contractual entitlements and project controls practices for an arbitration case to resolve control building design issues between a Vietnam refinery owner and its consortium of international EPC contractors, (2021).

• Methanol Plant Arbitration: Project Management advisory services regarding contractual entitlements and project controls practices  for an arbitration case in regards to subcontract Transition and Erection schedule. The Transition was associated with the two-week turnover period from the previous subcontractor on site. The Erection Cost was for the actual scope of work that was in question.

• Gas Processing Dispute Resolution: Construction delay and disruption claim analysis services addressing process engineering; communications deficiencies, and weak contract administration during a turbo expander addition project for a high-pressure gas plant in Saudi Arabia.

• Gas Processing Dispute Resolution: Claim defense development involving reconstruction of a Level 3 work schedule to a “should have been baseline” for construction of an Offshore Gas Compression Platform at a Gas Oil Separation Plant project offshore Saudi Arabia.

• Refinery Dispute Resolution: Reconstruction of schedule based on contemporaneous project records for resolution of claims resulting from changes and planning deficiencies during construction of a refinery utilities and offsites upgrade at Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia.

• Refinery Dispute Resolution: Project control services for multiple projects in Saudi Arabia involving reconstruction of project attributes from initial schedule disruption through last known delay beyond contractor control for negotiation of amendments to milestones.

• Petrochemical Advisory: Project controls and IPA project benchmarking study services for Joint Venture owners of an Ethane-Cracker expansion and Naphtha Reforming/Aromatics, and Metathesis Units project in Saudi Arabia.

• Gas Processing Advisory: Scheduling services during FEED and EPC phases for a seawater injection, supply and injection pipelines and crude trunklines, power distribution network, crude and gas production facilities project in Saudi Arabia.

• Gas Processing Dispute Resolution: Schedule impact analysis and settlement recommendation services for a contractor claim submission on a High Pressure Gas Plant, brownfield HP turbo expander additions project within existing facilities in Saudi Arabia.

• Gas Processing Dispute Resolution: Schedule impact analysis and settlement recommendation services for resolution of a contractor claim on an Offshore Gas Compression Platform Addition to Existing Offshore GOSP project in Saudi Arabia.

• Refinery Dispute Resolution: Schedule impact analysis and settlement recommendation services for claims arising during a major refinery upgrade Utilities and Offsites project in Saudi Arabia.

• Gas Processing Advisory: Project controls management services during  a FEED study for a plant that comprised a single 2.1 mtpa LNG train, with associated offsites, utilities, flares, and plot space for a future second process train located in Canada.

• Refinery Advisory: Field scheduling services for the procurement and construction phase on an onshore crude stabilization, sulfur recovery and seawater intake facilities project located in northern Greece.