Oil & Gas Project Test Plan
This is a practical guide to building a test plan for an oil & gas project project — the approach, scope and schedule for testing the deliverables, adapted to the realities of delivering an oil and gas facility or field development.
What a Test Plan is
A test plan is the approach, scope and schedule for testing the deliverables. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Test Plan. 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 test plan 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
- Test scope and objectives
- Test cases/scenarios
- Environments
- Entry/exit criteria
- Defect management
Oil & Gas Project-specific considerations
Tailor the test plan 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 test plan 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.