Evaluation of Project Time Performance in the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry: The Case of Ghana

An emerging economy like Ghana, one of the developing nations in Africa, is fortunate to have started exploration not long ago, which means that it is still developing in the field of upstream oil and gas exploration compared to other industrialized nations that have a lot of experience in the field of project management and oil exploration. About 80% of the management style in the upstream oil and gas sector is project-based; therefore, any delays in project deliveries and completion will have a negative effect on completion time and, at the end of the day, affect the performance of the organization as a whole as well as the nation as a whole. Only Crude Oil Storage Tank Maintenance Project in the upstream oil and gas industry in Takoradi, Western Region, was included in the research. Secondary data was taken on nine completed Crude Oil Storage Tank Maintenance Project from managers preoccupied with project management in the Ghanaian upstream oil and gas industry in the Western Region of Ghana. These willing management staff have been employed in the sector for more than 3 years. The study used the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) and the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) as inputs to calculate the estimated schedule (ES) and actual time (AT) to finally calculate the schedule performance index (SPI) and schedule variance (SV). The purpose of the study is to evaluate the performance of project time in the Ghanaian upstream oil and gas industry. The study demonstrates that out of the nine Crude Oil Storage Tank Maintenance Project in the Ghanaian upstream oil and gas industry analyzed using both the schedule performance index and schedule variance, eight projects were completed on time and one project was delayed.