DYNAMIC INDUSTRY

Volatility, competition and variability in the oil markets creates a challenging business dynamic within the exploration, production and investment sectors. Planning and flexibility are key to success. The Highland Group is helping oil, gas and petrochemical companies successfully manage economic and technological challenges optimizing profits with a focus on long-term sustainability. We help senior executives to lead and accelerate the change process to ensure meeting their business objectives.

The Highland Group’s experienced consultants are focused on key industries. In Oil & Gas, we have experience with the largest E&P, Services & Supply, Mid-Stream, Utilities, Refineries and Chemical companies throughout the world. Unlike many other consulting firms who provide junior and trainee consultants for your vital projects, our senior consultants represent a minimum of 15 years of successful consulting experience often in addition to similar industry experience. Our services can be delivered to any organization, anywhere in the world.

ELEVATE PROFITABILITY

Our clients have realized significantly reduced operating costs, improved supplier lead times, and reduced inventory and procurement costs. Working closely with our clients and their teams, The Highland Group designs and implements disciplines focused on increasing profitability through business process redesign, cost & supply chain management, purchasing systems, and sourcing and vendor management.

OPTIMIZE COST   RAISE PRODUCTIVITY

Doing more work with the same or less resources means more flexibility to react to market demands. The challenge is to ensure the business still operates efficiently. Sustained productivity increases require smart analysis and implementation, as well as thorough communication and training to ensure that processes, management systems and behaviors are all aligned. Success stories like a 16% compression in the Exploration to Production cycle or 50% reduction in overtime are not uncommon with Highland Group clients. We have a long track record of delivering sustainable change in the areas of sales & operations planning, footprint optimization, lean Six Sigma, maintenance systems, outage optimization and technology systems. We implement a tailored, proprietary system for sustaining and perpetuating improvements.

FREE UP WORKING CAPITAL

During difficult times, strong focus on working capital frees up cash to be used for growth activities or weathering the storm. Highland Group clients have seen success that exceeded their goals through implementation of diligent financial practices, and vendor and contractor management.

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The Situation:

One of the largest oil production companies in Canada was experiencing schedule and cost overruns in capital projects. With more than $5 billion dollars in annual capital projects, it was determined that significant gains could be made by implementing a more formal system to manage the project work, remove barriers and improve performance in relation to productivity, schedule attainment, headcount control, indirect costs, overtime, and the tracking of contract terms and conditions. The Highland Group was asked to customize and implement a system for managing capital projects to deliver improvements in meeting budget and timeline, and deliver a 20% decrease in cost of execution.

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The Situation:

In the days when crude oil prices hit record highs, oil sand extraction – which was long considered too expensive to be a practical source of oil – became a multi-billion dollar industry. In Northern Alberta, home of some of the largest oil sands in the world, a modern day black gold rush ensued.

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The Situation:

A leading Canadian crude oil producer saw an opportunity for improving the standard integrated reporting process or system for their maintenance organization. The various departments were not consistently measuring, tracking or trending the same performance indicators, and there was not a common methodology to assess the productivity of the departments or the entire organization. Additionally there was a need for more integrated tools in place to provide information to support the planning and use of maintenance resources.

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The Situation:

A major oil exploration and production company needed to improve exploration success, reduce drilling costs, and to improve the on-time delivery and quality of seismic data and services for offshore Gulf of Mexico and onshore USA.  The Highland Group was asked to develop and implement a Best Practice process of learning as a method of reducing total costs by 40% over a five-year period.

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The Situation:

A major gas exploration and production company needed to significantly reduce operating costs.  The Highland Group was asked to assist them to improve their schedule performance, enhance their ability to forecast and plan, and reduce lost time for major pieces of equipment.

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