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About me

My work is closing the gap between engineering and construction.

I have seen both sides of the table: I have sat at the drawing desk, and I have stood in the middle of the site.

Iraj Hedayatpour

Energy Project Management & Consulting

ایرج هدایت‌پور — مشاور و مدیریت پروژه‌های انرژی

Professional biography

Twenty years across the full delivery cycle of energy projects

I am a programme and project manager with the PMP and more than twenty years delivering large EPC projects in oil, gas and infrastructure. My experience covers the whole delivery cycle — engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning and handover — on gas processing units, refinery units, oil field development and long-distance pipelines.

I started at the bottom: first site supervision, then planning and project controls, then engineering management in FEED and MDP, and today programme management. That path is what makes my work different: I have read engineering from the inside and seen the site up close, so the gap between the two is not a theory to me.

My core strength is seeing schedule and cost as one system: building the WBS and baseline, measuring progress and S-curves, earned value management with SPI and CPI, delay recovery planning, and delay analysis with claims and extension-of-time preparation. Alongside that: managing long-lead items and international vendors, contract administration under EPC, turnkey and BOO models, and leading multidisciplinary teams with HSE first.

In engineering my focus is interfaces — exactly where projects usually get delayed: coordination between process, civil/structural, mechanical, piping, and electrical and instrumentation, resolving design conflicts before IFC, and controlling technical documents from datasheets and calculations to P&IDs and line lists.

My second line of work is the practical use of AI in project management. It doesn’t replace field experience; it raises the speed of seeing. Its scope, method and limits are on the AI page.

My native languages are Azerbaijani and Persian, and I work in English at professional working level. I am also available for regional engagements and rotational assignments.

Education: MBA, Construction Project Management · BSc Civil Engineering
Certificates: PMP from the Project Management Institute (PMI) · ISO 21500 · PEB assessor · four AI certificates
Planning tools: Primavera P6 · MS Project · earned value management
Industry scope: Gas processing, refinery units, field development, pipelines
Languages: Azerbaijani (native) · Persian (native) · English (professional working)

Roles and scope of responsibility

Career path

I don’t name clients or contractors; instead I state my role, the type of project, its stage and the work that was genuinely in my hands.

Dec 2022 – present

Engineering Project Manager

Technical assessment of connecting North Pars gas to the South Pars network and integrating it with the feed system of the second refinery

Leading engineering studies to assess the technical consequences of bringing North Pars feed gas into the South Pars network, against system stability and pressure compatibility criteria.
Managing the engineering interface between supply source and destination infrastructure: pressure control, flow dynamics and gas quality compatibility.
Directing the technical assessment of the second refinery’s gas receiving system so design and operating parameters match feed needs and process constraints.
Leading multidisciplinary teams — process, flow assurance, piping and instrumentation — to model and simulate the effect of the new source on existing facility operations.
Assessing technical risk on capacity bottlenecks, pressure surge and chemical composition incompatibility during blending and transition.
Acting as technical authority to align the requirements of three parties and establish the technical feasibility of the tie-in.

In parallel — South Pars Phase 19

Project Manager

Booster station pilot within the Phase 19 gas refinery programme

Leading and integrating the station’s FEED and basic engineering in full alignment with the Phase 19 master programme.
Managing technical interfaces between process, mechanical, piping, instrumentation and electrical to resolve design conflicts and ensure system integrity.
Controlling the engineering cycle: milestone tracking, technical document control — P&IDs, datasheets and calculations — and optimising resources against the schedule.
Identifying and mitigating engineering risks at design stage, before they become costly changes in the transition to EPC.
Technical representation towards client, consultant and contractors, and securing formal approval of engineering packages.

May 2021 – Dec 2022

Project Manager

EPC development of the Homa, Varavi and Tabnak gas fields

Direct oversight of physical progress against the schedule, managing several subcontractors to prevent work interference.
Controlling construction compliance with IFC drawings and oil and gas industry standards.
Managing site logistics and warehousing, including protecting sensitive equipment in harsh weather.
Leading HSE in a live operating environment with permit-to-work discipline.
Cost control, reviewing and approving subcontractor valuations, and daily, weekly and monthly reporting to the client.

2020 – 2022

Project Manager

Industrial project in Lamerd County, Fars Province

Managing construction, procurement and progress control in a remote project environment.

Earlier

Programme Manager · Planning & Control Manager · Construction Manager

Field developments and pipelines

South Pars Phases 6, 7 and 8 — onshore gas processing and export in a multi-contractor EPC environment; coordinating engineering documents, procurement release and work fronts against an integrated baseline.
South Pars Phases 9 and 10 — schedule and construction control of gas treating trains and utilities, including a progress measurement system, S-curve reporting and corrective action planning for lagging fronts.
North Pars — field development and surface facilities; scope definition, contractor coordination and progress control from engineering to construction.
Azar oil field — production and processing facilities; procurement follow-up, subcontractor management and site construction control.
Goreh–Jask crude oil pipeline — including pump stations and terminal works; right-of-way sequencing, spread productivity control and multi-front progress reporting along a long corridor.
Iranshahr–Chabahar 56-inch pipeline — high-pressure cross-country gas transmission; programme management, material call-off and spread coordination in difficult terrain.

What I want to build

Mission and vision

Mission

I help you see a project’s problems while there is still room to recover — not when all that is left is explaining them.

Vision

I want to turn two decades of EPC field experience and AI tools into a method any team can repeat: seeing risk sooner and genuinely carrying an organisation’s strategic objectives into its programmes and projects. Not as a claim — as a written practice that can be measured.

Values

Four things I insist on

Safety without compromise

Safety is not a project cost; it is the cheapest insurance a schedule can buy. A Zero LTI record comes from discipline, not luck.

Technical honesty

I deliver bad news early, and always with a way forward. No report of mine shows the situation better than it is.

Timely decisions

A late decision costs more than a wrong one. Managing the critical path means deciding before the options run out.

Credit to the team, accountability to the manager

Success belongs to the team; mistakes belong to the programme manager. Over time, only that order builds trust.

What makes this work different

Why me

I have seen both sides of the table: I have sat at the drawing desk, and I have stood in the middle of the site.

Most project trouble starts right there. The design office issues a drawing that does not build easily on site, and the site makes a decision nobody saw in design. I have spent years moving between the two and learning to translate each one’s language for the other — before it turns into a dispute.

Elevator Pitch

My work is closing the gap between engineering and construction.

Core messages

Four things I always say

Everything I write or say in a meeting comes back to at least one of these four.

Positioning
A project is won neither in the design office nor on site — it is won in the gap between the two, and managing that gap is my work.
Safety
Safety is not a project cost; it is the cheapest insurance a schedule can buy.
Decisions
A late decision costs more than a wrong one; managing the critical path means deciding before the options run out.
AI
AI does not replace the project manager; the project manager who uses it sees risk sooner.

Golden rule

If you can’t say a sentence the same way to the client and to the site team, don’t write it.

Voice

How I communicate

In letters, in meetings and on this site, I keep to these four.

Precise and data-driven

Every claim is backed by a number, a progress percentage or a standard.

Calm and dependable

Even in a crisis my voice doesn’t rise: facts first, then options, then a recommendation.

Clear and unadorned

If the audience is not technical, terms like FEED, MDP or IFC are explained on the spot.

A guide, not a boss

I stand beside the team, not above it: success is the team’s, mistakes are mine.

What I am working towards

This year’s goal

This year I want to work alongside owners and contractors so they use AI properly in project management and carry their organisation’s strategic objectives into programmes and projects — through diagnostic sessions, monthly advisory and project reviews.

If this way of working fits your project’s problem today

Let’s book a diagnostic session; it becomes clear sooner than any other way.

Book a Project Diagnostic Session