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Midstream Operations
Pipeline Systems
Capital-intensive extraction and processing programs where safety, regulation, and supply chain complexity define execution.
Example organizations in this space:
Kinder Morgan
Enterprise Products
Energy Transfer
Enbridge
This interactive experience is the shipped product itself — the same application code customers run in production, mounted read-only in your browser over a real sample journey. Not a video, not a mockup: because the demo and the product are one codebase, it can never drift from the real thing.
Inside this journey
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Pre-Sales
Qualify and diagnose the project before investing in a full discovery cycle.
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Project Qualification
Confirm budget range, decision-makers, timeline expectations, and key constraints before committing to a full discovery.
Qualification Questions
Project fit and key constraints
- What product(s) and nominal pipe diameter range are you planning for this project?
- Which terrain or crossing challenges apply that could affect cost or schedule?
- Will this project be subject to federal pipeline regulation (PHMSA) or other specific permitting regimes we should budget for?
Budget
- Is there an allocated budget range for capital and construction you can share so we can scope the right level of effort?
Decision makers and approvals
- Who can authorize a paid feasibility or discovery engagement, and which other roles influence that decision?
- Are external approvals or permissions required before field discovery (select any that apply)?
Timeline and next steps
- What is your target date for a construction-ready decision or pipeline in-service date?
- Are there any critical milestones driving that timeline (for example, lease expirations, regulatory deadlines, or contract milestones)? If yes, briefly name them.
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Technical & Regulatory Discovery
Map technical requirements, routing options, permitting constraints, terrain and crossing risks, stakeholders, and measurable success criteria.
Discovery Questions
Project snapshot: scope, schedule, and drivers
- Give a one-sentence summary of the proposed pipeline, including origin and destination, nominal diameter, and product.
- When do you need the pipeline placed into service?
- Which of the following best describes the product and typical operating pressure class for the route?
- How many distinct construction spreads or geographic segments do you expect will require separate mobilization?
- Describe the primary commercial driver for this project, for example capacity expansion, regulatory requirement, or asset replacement.
Red flags that can stop this project
- If a single permitting issue could stop the project, which one would it be?
- List the top three routing or crossing constraints you expect will pose the highest cost or schedule risk.
- Estimate the probability a major river or interstate crossing will require specialized methods like HDD or direct pipe.
- Identify known environmental or cultural resource issues along the corridor that could trigger extended agency review, such as wetlands, endangered species, or historic sites.
- When a permitting delay exceeds 16 weeks, how do you typically reassess project go/no-go and budget contingency?
How the route and terrain will change the game
- Walk me through the single terrain feature, whether steep slope, river, marsh, or dense urban corridor, that would make your team change the planned route.
- Which construction methods would you accept for steep slopes or major water crossings?
- Estimate the maximum continuous open-cut length your team prefers in a typical spread before requiring HDD or other specialized methods.
- Does your team require new geotechnical borings for permit-level design, or will desktop geotechnical assessment be acceptable for initial permits?
- How many unique right-of-way owners or stakeholders do you expect within a critical 10-mile segment?
Regulatory map: permits, approvals, and timelines
- If regulators insisted on a full permit-level environmental review, how would your schedule and budget need to change?
- List the federal and state permits you expect will be required, for example watercourse crossing permits, section 401, or state ROW approvals.
- Who on your team is responsible for regulatory engagement day to day, and who is authorized to sign permit applications?
- Are there seasonal or regulatory windows that must be respected, such as fish spawning or migratory bird restrictions?
- Provide an estimate, in weeks, of agency review time you have budgeted per major permit.
- Does the buyer have existing programmatic agreements or prior permits that could accelerate review?
Stakeholders and land access, the human side of schedules
- Name the stakeholder most likely to veto access across a critical parcel and explain why their approval is fragile.
- Provide the estimated number of parcels that will require negotiated easements within the primary corridor.
- Select the approaches to landowner engagement you have used or would accept: direct negotiation, third-party land agent, or eminent domain processes.
- Indicate your preferred contingency when a landowner refuses access, for example reroute, temporary access agreement, or legal remedy.
- Is there a dedicated land rights owner or team assigned in the buyer organization?
Who's in the room: sponsors, signoffs, and timing
- Identify whose formal signoff would become the gating bottleneck if you needed to accelerate approval by one month.
- Enumerate the internal functions that must approve the SOW, commercial terms, and permits, for example legal, procurement, and operations.
- Give the number of executives who need to be briefed before contract award.
- Name the role that will own post-construction acceptance and final sign-off on commissioning.
- What single commercial term would make your leadership reject the engagement outright?
Competitive landscape and alternatives you're weighing
- Is the incumbent contractor still the favorite, and what would have to change about their delivery for you to switch?
- Select the alternatives you are actively evaluating right now.
- Describe the condition under which you would keep your current approach instead of switching vendors, for example schedule certainty or cost cap.
- Has anyone on your team proposed solving this without an outside contractor, and if so what internal resources would they commit?
- Rate the likelihood you will select a new contractor in the next 90 days.
Operational readiness and constraints we must clear before fieldwork
- Point to the one readiness item whose absence would prevent the seller from starting paid fieldwork within your target mobilization window.
- Do you have GIS alignment files and right-of-way plats available in a standard geodatabase or CAD format?
- Outline known data quality issues in your alignment files, for example coordinate mismatches, missing easement metadata, or outdated centerlines.
- Confirm whether a single internal owner can approve the release of sensitive environmental or cultural data needed for permit submissions.
- Explain any funding or contractual milestones that must be met before the buyer can commit cash for mobilization.
- Are there third-party utilities or other pipeline owners requiring separate engineering packages or interface agreements?
Acceptance criteria and measurable success
- Specify the single acceptance metric that would justify withholding final payment, for example pipeline pressure loss, inspection failure, or incomplete as-built deliverables.
- Enumerate the deliverables you require for handover, including as-built drawings, alignment sheets, hydrotest reports, and integrity baseline data.
- Explain the tests and pass/fail thresholds you require for commissioning success on safety, pressure retention, and leakage.
- Indicate which party will own permit closeout and long-term compliance obligations after commissioning.
- State the remedy or warranty term you expect for a performance deficiency that appears in the first year after commissioning.
Timeline, decision triggers, and next steps
- Assuming the feasibility study proves costs within your target, what would still prevent the buyer from signing the SOW within a week?
- State the target date or quarter for your internal go or no-go decision.
- Outline the external approvals that must be in hand before award, such as agency permits or funding agreements.
- Do you have pre-allocated contingency budget or an agreed cost-sharing mechanism for permit-driven scope changes?
- State the roles that must sign commercial terms to start paid work and the typical approval lead time for each.
- What single legal, insurance, or contractual requirement would stop you from contracting immediately if it were unmet?
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Solution Walkthrough
Translate discovery findings into a proposed approach covering routing, construction methods, permitting strategy, risk mitigations, and timeline impacts.
Solution Experience
- Solution Walkthrough Session
- Confirm the current state and its cost to your team
- You confirm the proposed route and crossing decisions reduce the primary cost and schedule drivers identified in Discovery.
- Deliver a redlined proposed approach document that includes route maps, construction-method rationale, high-level cost assumptions, and an updated high-level schedule within five business days.
- You confirm the selected construction methods and the updated schedule meet the project's timeline expectations or identify the specific gaps.
- Present the proposed routing and crossing plan
- Provide a list of critical permits, expected lead times, and recommended permit owners in the next deliverable.
- You confirm the permitting pathway, identify which permits are on the critical path, and agree who must own each permit to meet the schedule.
- Provide the final list of project constraints, required decision-makers, and the approval timeline before the next decision milestone.
- Walk through construction methods and schedule impacts
- You agree on the remaining open issues required to finalize the SOW or move to a feasibility study.
- Outline the permitting strategy and stakeholder plan
- Confirm known site access windows and any outstanding landowner or stakeholder issues for the proposed routes.
- Schedule a feasibility study kickoff or SOW decision meeting within two weeks to operationalize the agreed approach.
- Demonstrate risk mitigations and contingency impacts
- Validate that the proposal matches your priorities
- Agree decision milestones and next steps
- Solution Walkthrough Session
- Solution Walkthrough Deck
- Solution Brief
- meeting
- slides
- document
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Solution Scope
Define phases, deliverables, responsibilities, exclusions, acceptance criteria, and high-level cost and schedule assumptions for feasibility through commissioning.
Scope Configuration
- Detailed pipeline engineering drawings
- Hydraulic design and sizing
- Pipe and material procurement
- Right-of-way easement acquisition
- Regulatory permitting and permit acquisition
- Conventional trenching and pipe installation
- Horizontal directional drilling execution
- Direct pipe installation
- Aerial and river crossing construction
- Welding, coating, and NDT inspection
- Lowering-in, backfill, and restoration
- Hydrostatic testing and dewatering
- Pipeline commissioning and startup support
- As-built documentation, alignment sheets, and integrity baseline
- Cathodic protection installation, monitoring, and ILI coordination
Scope Questions
Detailed pipeline engineering drawings
- Do you require construction-ready plan/profile drawings with cross-sections and bill of materials or only feasibility-level routing diagrams?
- Which drawing deliverable format do you require for handover (DWG, PDF with index, GIS shapefiles, or all three)?
- Who on your approval chain will sign and stamp final engineering drawings (PE name and state of licensure)?
- How many plan/profile sheets should we assume (estimate by linear miles or station count) for pricing and schedule?
- Provide the design basis document or core criteria we must reference on drawings (MAOP, design factor, allowable stresses, coating spec).
Hydraulic design and sizing
- Which product/service will the line carry and what design temperature and viscosity values must be used for hydraulic modeling?
- Who provides terminal and delivery point pressures, elevations, and pump/compressor curves needed for steady-state hydraulic runs?
- How many hydraulic scenarios should be modeled (nominal flow, peak flow, start/stop transients) for the feasibility and final design packages?
- Specify the allowable pressure drop and target velocity ranges you require (e.g., <X psi per mile, 3–6 ft/s for liquids).
- Identify any regulatory or operator standards to use for hydraulic safety margins (PHMSA guidance, state regs, company spec).
Pipe and material procurement
- Do you require pipe procurement through our supply chain or will you supply material serial numbers and mill test reports?
- Which pipe grade, wall thickness, and coating system should be specified (e.g., X70, API 5L grade, 3LPE, FBE)?
- How many pipe spool IDs or unique material lots should be tracked separately for procurement and traceability?
- Provide required mill test report (MTR) acceptance thresholds or third-party QA requirements (e.g., tensile, Charpy, chemical limits).
- Indicate required lead times or target delivery windows for long-lead items such as long-length pipe or specialty flanges.
Right-of-way easement acquisition
- Will route acquisition be executed by your land team or do you need us to provide right-of-way (ROW) easement negotiation support?
- Which ROW deliverables must be handed over (signed easement deeds, temporary workspace agreements, or both)?
- How many distinct landowner parcels and utility crossings must be negotiated along the proposed alignment (estimate count)?
- Provide any prescribed compensation or payment milestones tied to ROW signings (e.g., lump-sum on signing, staged payments).
- Identify any parcels requiring temporary haul-road construction, fence removal permits, or seasonal access restrictions that affect mobilization.
Regulatory permitting and permit acquisition
- Which permits must be obtained prior to construction start (state crossing permits, US Army Corps of Engineers, environmental permits, PHMSA notifications)?
- Who will be the primary point of contact for permit submissions and follow-up with issuing authorities?
- How many regulatory agency reviews or public consultations do you anticipate based on prior projects along the corridor?
- Provide any pre-existing permit numbers, environmental assessments, or baseline survey reports that should be referenced in permit applications.
- Indicate required permit ownership and handoff expectations (who holds final permit approvals at mobilization).
Conventional trenching and pipe installation
- Are traditional open-cut trenching methods acceptable across the alignment or are there areas restricted to HDD or specialty methods?
- How wide and deep is the typical trench cross-section you expect (specify required cover and bedding details)?
- Who provides local contractor permits for road crossings, traffic control plans, and DOT lane closure approvals?
- Specify any ground-restoration or topsoil segregation standards to follow after backfill (e.g., 4 in topsoil replacement, seed mix spec).
- Identify any environmental constraints affecting trenching timing (e.g., breeding season, wetland restrictions, high-water season).
Horizontal directional drilling execution
- Which HDD bores must be included (provide crossing names and estimated bore lengths for rivers, roads, or utilities)?
- How long are the longest expected HDD bores and what nominal pipe diameter and weight will be pulled?
- Do you require drill-fluid containment and frac-out contingency plans per state environmental agency expectations?
- Provide any geotechnical or bore-log data available for planned HDD crossings to inform drill tooling and spoil handling estimates.
- Indicate preferred acceptance criteria for HDD bores (pilot-to-product hole tolerance, pullback speed limits, and drill-fluid loss thresholds).
Direct pipe installation
- Is direct pipe being considered for specific crossings due to constrained right-of-way or urban settings?
- Which pipe diameters and lengths must be compatible with direct pipe jacking equipment (provide nominal OD and wall)?
- Who will coordinate subsurface utility engineering (SUE) level B or C data required before direct pipe mobilization?
- List any shaft size, working pit constraints, or propping/loading limits at proposed launch/receive sites.
- Estimate the expected mobilization footprint and crane/rig access needs for direct pipe installation at each crossing.
Aerial and river crossing construction
- Which crossings require aerial or suspended crossing design versus buried solutions (list river/road names)?
- How many regulatory waterway permits or USACE approvals will be needed for each river crossing?
- Specify the structural design criteria for aerial spans (wind load, ice load, design life, and inspection interval).
- Who is responsible for arranging marine or river-flow safety plans during in-water work windows?
- Indicate any seasonal work windows or in-water timing constraints that will limit crossing construction.
Welding, coating, and NDT inspection
- Do you require our welding crews to follow a specific welding procedure specification (WPS) or pre-approve your WPS documents?
- Which nondestructive testing (NDT) methods must be applied (radiography RT, ultrasonic UT, magnetic particle MT) and to what acceptance level?
- How many weld types require third-party inspection versus in-house QA/QC (field girth welds, shop splices, tie-ins)?
- Specify coating system acceptance tests required onshore (holiday detection thresholds, thickness gauge minimums, adhesion test).
- Identify required weld traceability artifacts to be delivered (weld maps with IDs, welder qualification records, NDT reports).
Lowering-in, backfill, and restoration
- Are there project-specific backfill compaction standards or testing frequency requirements (e.g., ASTM compaction, 95% Standard Proctor)?
- How should topsoil and revegetation be handled and what seed mix or restoration standard must be used for permanent ROW?
- Who is responsible for temporary erosion and sediment control measures and their inspections during restoration?
- Provide any required post-construction landowner restoration deliverables (photographic record, topsoil depth verification, signed landowner acceptance).
- Indicate whether trench dewatering will require permits or discharge sampling during backfill operations.
Hydrostatic testing and dewatering
- Will hydrostatic testing be performed at what test pressure relative to MAOP (specify psi or percentage of MAOP)?
- How many discrete test sections are expected and what is the approximate volume of potable or fresh water required per test section?
- Who will provide the source water and disposal plan for test and dewatering effluent (municipal hookup, self-supplied, contractor-supplied disposal)?
- Identify any water quality sampling or regulatory reporting required during hydrotest dewatering (pH, TSS, oil/grease limits).
- What evidence will validate hydrostatic test acceptance (signed hydrotest report with witnessed pressure hold duration and calibrated gauge records)?
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Mutual Commit
Finalize the SOW, commercial terms, milestone payments, permit ownership, and governance required to start paid work.
Agreement Modules
- Master Services Agreement (MSA)
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Commercial Terms & Payment Schedule
- Permit Ownership and Regulatory Responsibility Agreement
- Project Governance & Steering Committee Charter
- Change Order and Scope Governance Agreement
- Performance Security & Bonds
- Insurance Schedule and Indemnity Rider
- Acceptance & Commissioning Criteria Certificate
- Data Handover and As-Built Deliverables Agreement
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Feasibility Study
Deliver routing analysis, environmental and permitting constraints, capital cost estimate, and a schedule to inform go/no-go decisions.
- decision_readiness
- current_state
- desired_state
- success_criteria
- gaps
- stakeholders
- decision_readiness
- current_state
- desired_state
- success_criteria
- stakeholders
- gaps
- stakeholders
- current_state
- gaps
- decision_readiness
- decision_readiness
- decision_readiness
- decision_readiness
- decision_readiness
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Deployment
Operationalize construction with readiness checks, execution, and regulatory acceptance.
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Pre-Construction Readiness
Lock concrete readiness facts — permits, ROW status, site access, utilities, named owners, and mobilization dates required to begin construction.
Pre-Deployment Questions
Environment and site access
- How many distinct construction sites/spreads does this project include? (The deployment plan will create per-site mobilization modules.)
- Site access status for heavy equipment and standard construction mobilization (if multiple sites, choose 'Partial' and specify sites in the follow-up question).
- If you selected 'Partial' or 'No', list the site identifiers needing access work and the named owner responsible for delivering access (so we can schedule remediation and staging).
Permits and approvals
- Which of the following permit categories are fully secured for starting onsite construction? (select all that apply)
- For any required permits not yet secured, provide the named owner (person or organization) responsible for procurement and the committed approval date or 'TBD' (this feeds the critical-path schedule).
Right-of-way, landowner and utility coordination
- Are permanent ROW easements and temporary construction easements (TCEs) executed for all centerline segments where construction will start?
- If Partial or No, list the parcel IDs or site identifiers pending agreement and the named ROW/landowner contact responsible for closing each (owner name and role).
- Utility coordination status: have utility owners been identified with named contacts and assigned relocation/marking dates?
- If not all utilities are identified, indicate which utility types require coordination (select all that apply) and the named owner responsible for each coordination track.
People, mobilization dates and constraints
- Who is the single mobilization owner (named person responsible for field mobilization) and their role? (we use this to confirm crew call-up, gate access, and staging approvals)
- What is the target first-mobilization date for spread 1 (enter a date or 'TBD')? (This date gates long-lead procurement and crew scheduling.)
- Are there locked blackout windows or regulatory hold periods that prevent work between specific dates (e.g., seasonal restrictions, nesting periods, flood season)?
- If Yes, list the locked blackout date ranges and the named owner or regulator who enforces each restriction (so we can plan sequencing and inspections).
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Construction Execution
Manage field execution with spread plans, safety and environmental controls, sequencing, and milestone tracking through commissioning.
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Construction Completion Sign-Off
Confirm hydrotest and commissioning results, regulatory inspections, landowner restoration, and acceptance of as-built deliverables by named owners before final billing.
Checklist items
- Approve hydrotest completion report
- Obtain third‑party NDE and inspection acceptance
- Confirm commissioning functional test report
- Secure regulator clearance or certificate to place in service
- Receive written acceptance of as‑built deliverables
- Obtain landowner restoration completion sign-offs
- Confirm permit compliance and post‑construction filings submitted
- Document commercial completion prerequisites for final billing
- Complete operational turnover and training sign-off
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Success
Validate outcomes, hand over as-built and integrity baseline data, and maintain a shared channel for post-commissioning issues and enhancements.
Success Reviews
- Go-live Health Check (weeks 1-4)
- First Measurement Review (weeks 4-10)
- 90-Day Realization Review (around day 90)
- Quarterly Operational Review (ongoing)
- Annual Integrity Baseline and Final Handover
Issues & Enhancements
- Update the open-issues register with current status, next steps, and closure dates for the next quarter.
- Deliver remaining as-built and integrity baseline files to the agreed repository and confirm receipt.
- Configure the shared post-commissioning channel to send automated weekly status updates until all remediation items are closed.
- Open issues and remediation status
- Reduce the count of open post-commissioning issues and shorten mean time to resolve for critical items quarter-over-quarter.
- Ensure integrity baseline data completeness and that corrective actions from monitoring are tracked to closure.
- Keep the shared issue channel current, with all remediation tasks assigned a target date and acceptance evidence.
- Reconfirm acceptance criteria and owners
- Deliver any required supporting documentation to verify integrity baseline completeness for specified pipeline segments.
- Schedule follow-up technical detailed review for any recurring root-cause trends identified.
- Full handover of as-built and integrity baseline datasets
- Complete the transfer and acceptance of all as-built and integrity baseline data or record a clear remediation plan for any missing items.
- Reduce unresolved non-conformances to an agreed minimal list with documented remediation plans or formal closure evidence.
- Establish the annual and ongoing monitoring cadence and the shared channel operations for future issue handling.
- Deliver the final packaged as-built and integrity baseline dataset to the agreed repository and confirm ingestion by the buyer's system.
- Publish the long-term monitoring schedule and the escalation matrix for operational incidents.
- Compile a closure log for any deferred non-conformances with triggers and review dates for the following year.
- Confirm commissioning evidence is available and identify any items that must be closed before operational handover.
- Establish owners and target dates for all critical blockers discovered during go-live validation.
- Confirm the shared post-commissioning communication channel and reporting cadence for issue tracking.
- Publish a consolidated go-live validation summary with attached commissioning evidence and outstanding item list.
- Open the shared post-commissioning issue channel and populate it with the initial blocker list and target resolution dates.
- Deliver any missing as-built fragments or photos needed for immediate inspections.
- Present first metric set against targets
- Determine whether punchlist closure rate and as-built acceptance percent are trending to the Solution Scope targets and identify gaps.
- Agree a time-bound remediation plan with specific evidence requirements to close metric gaps.
- Ensure the shared issue channel is populated with all remediation tasks and required deliverables for tracking.
- Deliver an updated punchlist with each item's expected close date and required acceptance evidence.
- Submit the outstanding as-built deliverables for the segments not yet accepted, including alignment sheets and photos.
- Publish the data-source mapping used to compute the two metrics for auditability.
- Present outcome data vs Solution Scope targets
- Produce a documented list of any metrics that did not meet the Solution Scope targets and commit to a remediation schedule.
- Confirm final delivery dates and format for outstanding as-built and integrity baseline data required for operations.
- Establish the steady-state monitoring owner and the quarterly reporting cadence for ongoing performance and integrity checks.
- Publish a remediation register listing each gap, required acceptance evidence, and the deadline to close it.
- Commissioning and handover validation
- Resolution velocity and root-cause trends
- Validation of data completeness vs Solution Scope
- Document remaining gaps and remediation plan
- Diagnose root causes for metric gaps
- Agree corrective action plan and timeline
- Handover status for as-built and integrity baseline data
- Close or document unresolved non-conformances
- Early operational signals
- Integrity baseline monitoring results
- Open issues and immediate blockers
- Documentation and data quality audit
- Agree long-term monitoring and escalation cadence
- Confirm next reporting snapshot and required inputs
- Agree steady-state operational model and monitoring cadence
- Agree immediate remediation actions