Oil & Gas Project Business Case
This is a practical guide to building a business case for an oil & gas project project — the justification that weighs the costs, benefits and risks of doing the project, adapted to the realities of delivering an oil and gas facility or field development.
What a Business Case is
A business case is the justification that weighs the costs, benefits and risks of doing the project. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Business Case. On an oil & gas project project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for an Oil & Gas Project project
Oil & Gas Project projects live or die on delivering an oil and gas facility or field development. A well-built business case gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how oil & gas project projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Problem or opportunity
- Options considered
- Costs and benefits
- Financial appraisal (ROI/NPV/IRR)
- Recommendation
Oil & Gas Project-specific considerations
Tailor the business case to the risks that most often derail oil & gas project projects:
- HSE and regulatory risk
- Remote logistics
- Commodity price exposure
Example
On a real oil & gas project project, the business case would be shaped by delivering an oil and gas facility or field development. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — HSE and regulatory risk, remote logistics, commodity price exposure — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.