Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Upstream Project Officer

🎯 Role Definition

The Upstream Project Officer is a hands-on project delivery and coordination specialist within Exploration & Production (E&P) operations. Reporting to the Project Manager or Project Controls Lead, the role is accountable for day-to-day project administration and execution support across upstream activities — including wells, drilling, completions, facilities, and sub-sea works. The role combines project controls, contract and vendor coordination, HSE compliance, technical interface management, and stakeholder communication to ensure safe, timely and cost-effective delivery of upstream scope. Strong familiarity with upstream workflows, drilling and well operations, EPC contracting, cost and schedule controls, and regulatory compliance is essential.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Junior Project Coordinator (Upstream Projects)
Field Operations Coordinator / Rig Coordinator
Project Administration or Project Controls Assistant in Energy

Advancement To:

Senior Project Officer / Project Controls Specialist
Project Engineer (Well/Facilities)
Upstream Project Manager / Project Lead

Lateral Moves:

HSE Advisor for Drilling & Completions
Contracts & Procurement Specialist (E&P)
Operations Superintendent (Field Operations)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Coordinate and manage day-to-day project activities for upstream drilling, completions, and facilities projects, ensuring alignment with the project scope, master schedule, and budget constraints while reporting exceptions promptly to the Project Manager.
Maintain and update the project schedule using Primavera P6 or MS Project, perform schedule risk assessments, and produce baseline and earned value analyses that inform decision-making on critical path activities.
Prepare, monitor and reconcile project budgets and cost forecasts; implement cost-control measures, verify vendor invoices against contracts and deliverables, and escalate budget variance to project leadership.
Lead and manage the project change control process for upstream scope changes: capture change requests, evaluate technical and commercial impacts, coordinate multidisciplinary review, and maintain an auditable change register.
Act as the primary interface between onshore project teams, offshore drilling/rig operations, and EPC contractors to resolve operational issues, coordinate mobilization/demobilization, and manage scope handover for well construction and facilities work.
Support pre-mobilization and execution planning for drilling and subsea campaigns including readiness checklists, permitting, engineering interfaces, logistic planning, and contingency planning to reduce schedule and HSE risks.
Monitor contractor and vendor performance against KPIs and SLAs: organize regular performance reviews, issue non-conformances where required, and coordinate corrective action plans and lessons learned.
Manage procurement and contract administration activities in collaboration with commercial/procurement teams: support tender evaluation, assist with contract drafting for FEED/EPC and services, and ensure deliverables and milestones are contractually tracked.
Oversee HSE compliance and risk management for project activities: conduct risk assessments and job safety analyses (JSAs/JRAs), ensure permit-to-work procedures are implemented, and follow up on incident investigations and preventative actions.
Coordinate technical documentation control for engineering deliverables, drawings, well programs, and operations manuals: ensure version control, QC checks, and timely distribution to stakeholders via SharePoint or EDMS.
Prepare and deliver consolidated weekly/monthly project reports, dashboards and presentations for steering committees, highlighting progress, cost-to-complete, schedule health, risk register updates and mitigation status.
Support well planning and execution by reviewing well programs, wellsite risk assessments, and coordination of directional drilling, casing, cementing, and completion services with drilling and well engineering teams.
Facilitate cross-discipline interface management between drilling, completions, reservoir, facilities and subsea teams to identify and resolve technical conflicts, sequencing issues, and ensure integrated project delivery.
Administer and track regulatory permits, consents and third-party approvals required for upstream operations (environmental permits, well licenses, marine permits), and ensure timely renewals and compliance documentation.
Implement and maintain project controls systems (cost control, document control, schedule baselines, EVM) and support training for project team members to improve data quality and reporting accuracy.
Conduct risk identification, qualitative and quantitative risk assessments, and maintain a live project risk register with mitigation actions, owners, and status updates to inform contingency budgets and schedule buffers.
Coordinate logistics and site support services for mobilization of rigs, vessels, modules and outage teams including customs, transportation, warehouses and staging areas to ensure efficient material flow and reduced demobilization delays.
Liaise with reservoir and production teams to support integrated well delivery objectives, ensuring optimization of well placement, completion design and production ramp-up schedules.
Support commissioning, start-up and handover activities for new facilities or well completions: coordinate punch-list management, functional testing, performance verification, and prepare final handover documentation to operations.
Drive quality assurance and control activities on site and during vendor deliverables review: ensure equipment, materials and construction meet specification, and coordinate inspections, FATs/SATs and NDT where applicable.
Participate in commercial reconciliation and close-out activities at project completion: ensure all deliverables are received, contractual claims are settled, final accounts are reconciled and lessons learned are documented.
Support the development and maintenance of project governance artifacts: project execution plan (PEP), quality plan, HSE plan, communications plan, and roles & responsibilities matrices.
Provide on-call operational support during drilling campaigns or critical phases and coordinate rapid-response teams for emergent operational problems, ensuring minimal downtime and compliance with escalation protocols.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Assist in preparing tender packages, bid clarifications and technical-commercial evaluations in support of procurement cycles.
Support stakeholder engagement activities, community liaison and regulatory meetings to maintain social license and minimize project disruptions.
Maintain and update project repositories (drawings, P&IDs, well files) to ensure accurate historical records for decommissioning and future infill decisions.
Provide mentoring and on-the-job coaching for junior project staff, contractors and interns to build project capability and continuity.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Project scheduling and controls with Primavera P6 and/or Microsoft Project; demonstrable experience in baseline creation, critical path analysis and integrated master schedules.
Cost control and financial forecasting experience including budget tracking, variance analysis and earned value management (EVM).
Strong working knowledge of upstream operations: drilling and completions processes, well construction terminology, subsea and facilities interfaces.
Contract administration and procurement experience in EPCI/EPC contracts, service agreements, purchase orders, and vendor management in oil & gas projects.
HSE management systems and practices: permit-to-work, incident investigation, risk assessment, and regulatory compliance (environmental and safety permits).
Technical documentation control, use of EDMS/SharePoint, drawing revision control and transmittal management for engineering deliverables.
Familiarity with commercial systems such as SAP, JD Edwards or equivalent for purchase orders, invoicing and cost centre tracking.
Knowledge of commissioning, pre-commissioning and start-up activities for upstream facilities and wells including punch-list management and performance testing.
Ability to interpret technical drawings (P&IDs, well schematics), engineering specifications and well programs.
Data literacy: competent with Excel (advanced functions, pivot tables), Power BI/Tableau basics, and experience preparing dashboards and KPI reporting.
Risk management tools and methodologies, including qualitative/quantitative risk assessment and maintenance of a project risk register.
Experience coordinating logistics for rig/vessel mobilization, customs clearance and marine operations for offshore campaigns.

Soft Skills

Clear and persuasive communication skills for cross-functional coordination, stakeholder briefings and steering committee updates.
Strong organizational skills with demonstrated ability to prioritize multiple tasks and deliverables under tight schedules.
Problem-solving and analytical thinking to identify root causes, propose mitigation, and escalate appropriately.
Negotiation and influencing skills for contractor management, scope clarifications and claims mitigation.
Leadership and team collaboration with the ability to work effectively across multicultural and multidisciplinary teams.
Attention to detail for contract, HSE and technical documentation review.
Resilience and adaptability to operate in high-pressure operational windows, offshore/remote environments and shifting project priorities.
Stakeholder management and diplomacy when dealing with regulators, joint venture partners and third parties.
Initiative and continuous improvement mindset to streamline processes and improve project delivery efficiency.
Time management and accountability with a results-driven orientation toward cost, schedule and safety outcomes.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, preferably Petroleum, Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, or equivalent technical discipline.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Petroleum Engineering, Project Management, or MBA.
Professional certification such as PMP, Prince2 Practitioner, or NEBOSH/IOSH for HSE.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Petroleum Engineering
Mechanical or Civil Engineering
Project Management
Environmental Engineering / Safety Management

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3 to 8 years of progressive experience in upstream oil & gas projects, drilling operations, or project controls roles.

Preferred:

5+ years’ direct experience supporting wells, drilling/completions projects, or offshore facilities projects with demonstrable history of managing schedule, cost and contracts.
Prior exposure to international offshore campaigns, EPC contractor environments, and joint venture governance preferred.
Proven track record of delivering projects or major scopes within E&P operations, with examples of risk mitigation and cost recovery initiatives.