Abstract

In the past, the Duri steamflood reservoir was managed by engineers and geoscientists organized in a functional arrangement. The engineers and geoscientists were grouped under Production Engineering, Reservoir Engineering, and Development Geology functions. The number of engineers and geoscientists involved in the organization steadily increased as the project became bigger and more areas were developed. This led to adding more layers in the organization.

A team from Duri conducted a benchmarking survey in the first quarter 1994 of several major oil companies operating steamfloods in the USA. One of the purposes of the survey was to learn how those companies organized their engineers and geoscientist to manage their floods. Based on the lessons learned from the survey and experiences from the Duri organization, a new organization based on a cross-functional team concept was formed and implemented in June 1994. This new organization was designed to fit the Strategic Business Unit based organization which is being implemented throughout PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia.

In the new organization, the engineers and geoscientists are grouped into five teams. Each team consists of geoscientists, reservoir engineers, production engineers and support personnel. In a very short time, the new organization has shown significant impact on Duri performance. Higher productivity, faster response time and higher employee satisfaction are among the impacts that have been observed. This paper will discuss considerations in designing the cross-functional team based organization, implementation of organization and impacts to the Duri performance.