The landscape of multi-billion-dollar capital projects within the energy sector, encompassing both traditional oil and gas and the rapidly expanding offshore wind domain, is characterized by inherent complexity and significant risk. Operators navigate a volatile environment marked by fluctuating commodity prices and heightened geopolitical tensions.
They also face macroeconomic uncertainties and the overarching demands of the global energy transition. The scale of investment required is immense, particularly in developing countries aiming for net-zero emissions, while infrastructure faces increasing threats from extreme weather events.
The offshore wind sector, despite its growth, faces unique hurdles. These include recent macroeconomic pressures like rising raw material costs, interest rate hikes, and persistent supply chain bottlenecks. These factors have inflated project costs by 40–60% since 2020 and led to significant project delays and cancellations.
Successfully delivering major projects against this backdrop demands more than technical proficiency. It requires leaders capable of navigating profound uncertainty and systemic risk with strategic foresight and operational resilience.
Darren Kilbride stands out as a seasoned frontline Contracts and Procurement (C&P) Manager possessing the extensive experience necessary to manage these high-stakes endeavors. His career spans the full lifecycle of multi-billion-dollar capital projects in offshore wind and oil and gas, from initial strategy and construction through to commercial operation and decommissioning.
Having held senior roles at major energy organizations, he has overseen large, complex supply chain portfolios covering traditional oil and gas projects as well as renewable energy ventures, with values scaling from millions to billions of dollars.
His experience, including serving as Chief of Staff in crisis management scenarios, demonstrates exceptional leadership in protecting project integrity and maintaining momentum under pressure. This showcases an ability to thrive where uncertainty prevails.
Central to Kilbride's effectiveness in crisis and risk scenarios is his deep expertise in supply chain management, a critical function in large capital projects. His proficiency covers the essential components of contract authoring, tendering processes, complex negotiations, and claims management. These skills are fundamental to establishing robust frameworks that can withstand the pressures inherent in the energy sector.
Navigating Contractor Insolvency Crises
Contractor insolvency represents a significant threat to the continuity of large construction projects, capable of causing enormous disruption and financial exposure. The construction industry has seen a high frequency of such events, making preparedness crucial.
Kilbride encountered such a situation directly when a key engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor faced financial collapse mid-project. The immediate consequences were severe, impacting hundreds of workers and critical supply lines.
Kilbride stated, "Several years ago, I was the contracting and procurement manager for a large construction project where one of the main EPC contractors went into formal insolvency proceedings. During the fall-out of the insolvency proceedings, subcontractors (with several hundred construction workers) were not being paid, and critical services and materials required for continuation of the construction campaign were starting to be withheld by creditors." This scenario underscores the cascading effects insolvency can have, jeopardizing project timelines and budgets.
In response, Kilbride initiated a comprehensive and proactive strategy, assembling a multidisciplinary task force comprising project management, finance, and supply chain experts. This team implemented a series of targeted interventions designed to stabilize the situation and maintain project momentum.
These actions included rigorous monitoring of the contractor's financial health, careful management of milestone payment timing, the introduction of performance incentives, and the provision of financial assurances directly to crucial subcontractors, backed by offset and step-in rights. These mechanisms are often discussed in managing insolvency risks.
Crucially, direct settlements were negotiated with strategic subcontractors to ensure their continued engagement. Kilbride explained, "We closely monitored contractor liquidity, managed contract milestone payment sequencing, introduced contract completion incentives, provided payment securities to subcontractors with offset and step-in rights in case of non-payment by the main contractor, and made direct settlement agreements of outstanding debt with high-critical and strategic subcontractors in return for continued support by these subcontractors on the project."
He added, "In parallel, I developed in the team a communication and briefing strategy both externally and internally." This multi-pronged approach, combining financial controls, contractual levers like step-in rights, performance security, and transparent communication, allowed the project to navigate the year-long crisis and complete the construction phase.
His strategy moved beyond typical owner-contractor remedies like termination or bond claims, directly addressing the stability of the lower-tier supply chain. By ensuring critical subcontractors remained viable and committed despite the main contractor's failure, Kilbride demonstrated a sophisticated, systemic approach to risk mitigation that recognized the entire project ecosystem's importance for continuity.
Coordinating Crisis Response as Chief of Staff
In a high-impact crisis, effective coordination and structured decision-making are paramount. Kilbride's experience as Chief of Staff during such events highlights a systematic approach to managing chaos and driving resolution.
His responsibilities centered on mobilizing the necessary personnel and orchestrating the logistical elements of the company's response. This involved assembling dedicated crisis teams, often comprising 15–20 individuals drawn from various functions, reflecting the cross-departmental coordination inherent in a Chief of Staff role and essential for crisis management.
Kilbride described a methodical sequence for managing these situations: "As Chief of Staff, I was responsible for assembling a crisis (personnel) team and coordinating logistics to drive company decisions and responses to high-impact crises. This was done in a structured sequence by first developing an accurate, timely, and up-to-date brief of the crisis at hand, then developing multiple forward scenarios for response strategies together with the pros and cons of these strategies."
This structured process, involving situation assessment, scenario planning, and strategy evaluation, aligns with best practices for effective crisis leadership.
Ensuring effective coordination across diverse teams—potentially including operations, legal, communications, and finance specialists—under intense pressure requires robust processes. Kilbride emphasized the continuation of his structured approach through implementation and monitoring, coupled with rigorous documentation.
This meticulous logging serves immediate needs for tracking and accountability within the crisis team, but it also plays a vital role in building organizational memory. By systematically capturing decisions and actions, valuable data is preserved, facilitating post-crisis analysis and contributing to a repository of lessons learned.
This practice directly supports the development of a stronger risk management framework over time, akin to the Project Management Institute's (PMI) concept of building a historical risk database from project experiences, thereby enhancing future preparedness and organizational resilience.
Ensuring Project Continuity Through Preparation and Simulation
Maintaining the continuity of large-scale energy projects when confronted by unexpected crises hinges significantly on proactive preparation. Kilbride identifies this as a cornerstone of effective risk mitigation.
The essential components involve ensuring that personnel assigned to crisis management roles receive thorough advance training, possess a clear understanding of their specific roles and responsibilities, and participate in regular simulation exercises. These exercises allow team members to practice their functions and become familiar with the decision-making protocols in a controlled environment, mirroring established risk management principles that advocate for planning and preparedness.
Kilbride emphasized, "Preparation is key. Project members assigned a crisis management role have to be trained in advance and know their roles and responsibilities. Regular simulation exercises need to be carried out where fictitious crises are played out and each member can practice their role and get accustomed to the decision-making process."
Furthermore, implementing a roster system ensures that crisis duties, often supplementary to regular jobs, are distributed, with clear expectations that the crisis role assumes priority during assigned "on-call" periods.
Kilbride extends the utility of simulation beyond immediate crisis response into the realm of routine supply chain management through a technique he terms "contract gaming." This innovative approach involves stress-testing draft contracts before they are finalized and awarded.
It actively simulates potential disruptions rather than relying solely on passive review. Kilbride explained the process: "I have several times used so-called 'contract gaming' exercises for draft contract reviews where the contents of a draft contract are run against a fictitious disruption scenario (e.g., labor strikes, major accidents, quality issues, delay scenarios)."
He continued, "Two teams are formed, one team playing contractor, the other playing client, with both teams having to use the contents of the contract and plead their case in front of a mock arbitration panel. This gaming often uncovers ambiguities or gaps in contract provisions which, if found pre-award, can still be adjusted in negotiations so that the contract is more robust."
This method transforms contract review into an active, adversarial simulation, directly testing the contract's ability to handle plausible operational challenges. Such techniques are recognized in training and academic contexts for their effectiveness.
By proactively identifying weaknesses pre-award, this "gaming" allows for negotiation and refinement, resulting in stronger, more resilient contracts better equipped to handle the inevitable uncertainties of complex projects. It bridges the gap between theoretical risk planning and the practical robustness of the contractual agreements that govern project execution.
Managing Workforce Health and Operations During COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented challenges to the global energy sector, significantly impacting offshore operations, workforce mobility, and safety protocols. As a supply chain lead for a major offshore project during this period, Kilbride faced the complex task of mobilizing a large international workforce amidst stringent public health measures.
The project required bringing a multi-vessel construction fleet with approximately 1100 personnel into a country that had imposed strict limitations on foreign worker entry and mandated lengthy onshore quarantine periods. Kilbride detailed the situation: "During COVID, I was involved as a supply chain lead in an offshore project, mobilizing a multi-vessel construction fleet into the country from abroad with a total crew contingent of approximately 1100 persons."
He explained, "To combat the spread of COVID-19, the country had introduced limitations on foreign worker entries and quarantine measures that, amongst other things, required incoming vessel crews to serve a quarantine period and testing onshore in-country before they were cleared to perform work." With contracts awarded before the pandemic, the potential financial impact was catastrophic: "Prevailing quarantine and testing procedures meant that the fleet was forecast to be idle at a cost of about a third of the original project value." This scenario highlighted the vulnerability of complex supply chains to unforeseen global events.
Facing potential project derailment, Kilbride led a task force that developed and implemented innovative protocols in close collaboration with authorities, successfully balancing workforce health with operational continuity. The solution involved fundamentally re-engineering the mobilization process.
Rather than adhering to the disruptive onshore quarantine mandate, the team instituted pre-departure testing abroad to minimize risk before travel and utilized the transit time for the required quarantine period onboard the vessels. Kilbride elaborated, "Crews underwent pre-departure testing abroad before boarding vessels (instead of on-arrival in country) to minimize risk of positive cases before departure, served their quarantines on the vessel in transit, and the offshore work sequence was modified to allow vessels to self-sufficiently liquidate work without outside interaction with non-quarantined staff."
This required meticulous planning, including arranging onboard PCR testing at anchorage and managing logistical details down to sample transport. "When implementing these protocols, meticulous planning and daily coordination were required."
The success of these measures, which adhered to national safeguards while avoiding costly delays, saved significant funds for both client and contractor and allowed the project to proceed. The protocols proved robust and were replicated for subsequent projects during the pandemic.
This approach exemplified adaptive supply chain management, integrating health requirements directly into the logistical flow and transforming a potential bottleneck into a managed phase, while upholding worker welfare standards.
Decisive Action in High-Pressure Crisis Scenarios
Crises frequently demand rapid and decisive decision-making under extreme pressure to mitigate escalating risks and maintain project viability. Kilbride encountered such a scenario during the COVID-19 pandemic, where operational continuity was threatened by quarantine regulations impacting workforce rotation.
Workers coming off shift faced the prospect of breaking quarantine if they returned home, which would necessitate a mandatory 14-day re-quarantine period before they could re-enter the site. This delay posed a direct threat to the project's shutdown.
Kilbride recalled the critical juncture: "On one project during COVID, we decided to same-day contract an entire hotel with several hundred beds (for several weeks) to house workers from supply chain partners coming off shift so that they could avoid breaking quarantine." The context of pandemic-related restrictions created a high-stakes environment where immediate action was required.
Faced with this imminent disruption, Kilbride's team took swift and decisive action by securing accommodation that allowed workers to remain within a controlled environment. The impact was immediate and significant: "They could avoid breaking quarantine and return to the field the next day, thus avoiding a 14-day quarantine remobilization period for site entry and project shut-down."
Contracting an entire hotel on the same day represented a substantial upfront cost, yet it was deemed necessary to avert the far greater financial and schedule repercussions of a complete project halt. This action exemplifies effective crisis leadership, where calculated, prompt interventions are made to control the situation and protect overarching project goals.
It reflects a mature understanding of risk management, prioritizing operational continuity by accepting a manageable immediate cost to prevent a potentially catastrophic downstream impact, thereby safeguarding the project's value.
Maintaining Team Morale and Focus Amidst a Crisis
Sustaining team morale and maintaining focus on long-term objectives during prolonged periods of crisis is a critical leadership challenge. Crises inevitably involve heightened stress, increased workload, and frequent setbacks, which can significantly impact employee well-being and engagement.
Kilbride emphasizes the importance of actively managing the human element during these demanding times. Key to his approach is the visible recognition and acknowledgment of the extraordinary effort expended by team members.
He stated, "For leaders, it is important to recognize the extra level of effort that is put in by the team. One needs to make sure that this extra effort is seen as being noted and acknowledged by leaders. It is also fundamental to have built a joint vision/mission statement and to frequently communicate what this is." Regularly reinforcing a shared purpose helps anchor the team amidst turbulence, aligning with recommendations for clear communication and compassionate leadership during crises.
Beyond motivation, Kilbride stresses the practical need to manage stress and prevent burnout. He advocates for framing difficulties as collective challenges rather than individual failings, fostering a sense of shared responsibility and resilience.
"By their nature, crises come with frequent hurdles and setbacks, and it is important to recognize that this is normal and does not change the long-term vision," he observed. "When dealing with setbacks, it is also important to portray these as setbacks shared by all in a team rather than for an individual (the proverbial 'shared pain is half the pain')."
Equally important is vigilance regarding team well-being: "Lastly, during crises, it is important to watch out for signs of stress and to let team members take breaks and have time for mental recovery." This dual focus—combining motivational leadership through vision and recognition with practical welfare management by monitoring stress and ensuring recovery time—addresses both the psychological commitment and the physical and mental sustainability required for teams to navigate crises effectively over the long haul.
It acknowledges that resilience depends on both shared purpose and the capacity for sustained effort.
Balancing Immediate Crisis Needs with Long-Term Project Goals
A fundamental challenge in crisis management is balancing the urgent demands of the immediate situation with the ongoing requirements of large-scale project delivery to ensure long-term success is not compromised. Kilbride employs a structural solution to manage this tension: a rotating roster system for the designated crisis management team.
This mechanism is designed to distribute the burden of crisis response across a broader segment of the project organization, preventing the burnout of a few key individuals. Kilbride explained the rationale: "Ideally there is a (rotating) roster in place so that the strain on the project organization is shared and not limited to a few individuals only, who during crisis mode would otherwise be taken out of commission for weeks at a time with no capacity for their regular project roles." This approach directly supports organizational resilience by ensuring that critical personnel are not indefinitely diverted from their primary project responsibilities.
The effectiveness of the roster system relies heavily on the foundational elements of preparedness discussed earlier: robust training, clearly defined roles, and standardized decision-making processes. These elements enable smooth and efficient handovers between successive crisis teams.
Kilbride noted, "In an organization with good crisis training, clear roles and responsibilities, and standard methods for crisis decision making, handovers are manageable. A crisis response can be handed over from team A in week 1 to team B in week 2, and so on so that Team A can return to their regular project duties."
By limiting the duration for which any individual is fully dedicated to the crisis response, the system minimizes disruption to the core project activities. This structure operationalizes organizational resilience, allowing the project to maintain both its immediate crisis response capability and its capacity for ongoing execution, ensuring that short-term emergencies do not derail long-term strategic objectives.
Key Lessons in Risk Mitigation for Future Leaders
Drawing from extensive experience in high-risk project environments, Kilbride offers crucial lessons for future leaders in risk mitigation and crisis management. The first centers on the necessity of a proactive and systematic approach to managing identifiable risks.
This involves not only mapping potential risks but also continuously monitoring their trajectory, whether increasing or decreasing, and adjusting resource allocation accordingly. For significant known risks, he advocates for developing active management plans aimed at reducing the probability of occurrence, alongside pre-defined response plans to mitigate the impact should the risk materialize.
Kilbride summarized this as: "Systemically map and recurrently review how risks are trending (up or down). Allocate resources to these changes accordingly. Have an active risk management plan for major risks in place to reduce the likelihood of their occurrence and a pre-crafted response plan in case any of them materialize."
This aligns with foundational principles of risk management frameworks that emphasize identification, analysis, response planning, and monitoring. Developing robust local content strategies during procurement can also be viewed as part of this proactive planning, mitigating potential supply chain and workforce risks.
Recognizing that not all crises can be foreseen or specifically planned for, Kilbride's second key lesson addresses preparedness for unpredictable events. In such cases, where the nature of the crisis is unknown, relying on pre-scripted plans is insufficient.
Instead, the focus must shift to building organizational capability and resilience. He advises: "Be prepared for crises, where specific plans cannot be pre-crafted due to the vast range and unpredictability of what can constitute a crisis. Instead, have a team trained on generic response strategies and decision-making methodology, with clear individual roles, and assigned to a duty roster. Frequently practice crisis response with this team in simulation exercises so that everybody knows their role."
This approach emphasizes the development of an adaptable team equipped with generic response skills, clear responsibilities, structured decision-making processes, and regular simulation practice—echoing the importance of training, defined roles, and rosters previously discussed. This distinction between managing known risks through specific plans and preparing for unknown crises through adaptable capabilities highlights a critical duality.
Effective leadership in complex environments requires both rigorous contingency planning for major anticipated threats and the cultivation of general organizational resilience to navigate the inevitable 'black swan' events that defy prediction.
Kilbride's career exemplifies the critical blend of strategic foresight, operational agility, and robust leadership required to navigate the complexities of multi-billion-dollar energy capital projects. His experience demonstrates a mastery of proactive crisis management, achieved through meticulous preparation, innovative simulation techniques like 'contract gaming,' and decisive action under pressure.
Furthermore, his leadership in managing supply chain resilience, particularly when faced with contractor insolvency and unprecedented global disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic, showcases an ability to maintain project continuity against significant odds. By fostering team focus, managing morale effectively, and implementing sustainable structures like crisis team rosters, he ensures that immediate challenges do not derail long-term objectives.
This combination of deep C&P expertise, strategic risk mitigation, and adept handling of uncertainty positions Kilbride as a leader capable of transforming potential project disasters into manageable situations, ensuring delivery and protecting value in the demanding landscape of the modern energy sector.
ⓒ 2025 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
