Jeff Dice

Deepwater Fixed Jacket – GOM
A dispute ensued over construction methodologies assumed by the design team as opposed to those used by the fabricator for a deep-water fixed jacket that failed during installation in the Gulf of Mexico. Jeff was selected as an expert witness for opining on cost and schedule impacts and technical support for methodology selection. Jeff reviewed the contract and engineering documents to determine the cause of inappropriate decisions and recommended apportioned blame.

Chemical Plant – Fire & Explosion
A chemical facility experienced a fire and explosion event during the commissioning of an LDPE plant. Jeff performed a root cause analysis of the plant’s structural components to determine that design loads were underestimated. Jeff analyzed the extent of repair required by failure versus the extent of repair required to prevent future failures, and he apportioned damage and final cost allocations for structural and facility scopes.

Louisiana Plastics Plant – Hurricane
A hurricane caused soil movement and resulted in facility damage to a refinery dock. Jeff inspected structural damage sustained to the cooling towers, mechanical and welding shops, and general buildings. Jeff prepared a structural repair assessment, including the dredging required to remove excess soil deposited by the hurricane.

Offshore Facility – Personal Injury
Jeff was selected as an expert witness to opine on the cause of a personal injury incident. Jeff reviewed the as-build flooring design to determine its structural adequacy.

Midwest Refinery FCCU, Crude – Fire
Jeff was appointed to create a material take-off and provided technical support for schedule development to perform a like-kind execution plan to define value-for-claim where the insured chose to replace the entire facility. Jeff’s scope included all facility items including structural, civil, electrical, piping, and related equipment.

Southern Refinery, Penex ISOM – Fire
Jeff was deployed on-site to verify structural damage and develop cost estimates to support the reserves development. Jeff’s scope included a review of the damages’ extent and access limits to execute repairs. Jeff also performed subsequent site visits to review the impact on heater performance caused by fire deformation.

Petrochemical – Reactor Explosion
A chemical facility experienced a reactor explosion during the construction phase. Jeff evaluated damage to the facility’s structural steel, and concrete buildings & foundations. Jeff’s analysis determined that repair costs were significantly greater than the coverage limits allowed under the insurance policy.

Texas Solar Farm– Weather Event
Heavy rain occurred during the construction of a solar project, causing the failure of large modules housed in cardboard containers and exposed to weather elements. Jeff mobilized onsite to inspect the support packages that sustained heavy rain and the resulting damage to the solar panels. Jeff’s assessed the support package design to determine the failure’s root cause.

Warehouse – Roof Failure
Jeff performed a root cause analysis to determine the failure of a commercial warehouse’s roof supports. Jeff prepared a detailed structural assessment, including a review of the facility’s concrete, masonry, timber, and steel components.

Refinery – Storage Tank Roof Collapse
Jeff was appointed to determine the cause of a chemical storage tank roof failure. Jeff performed a detailed assessment of possible mechanism failures to pinpoint the failure’s root cause.

Refinery – Fire
Jeff performed a detailed fire damage assessment to develop a repair plan for a refinery that sustained fire damage. Jeff created repair estimates for both the cost and schedule.

Subject Matter Expert – Deepwater Offshore Projects
As the structural engineering SME, Jeff presided over numerous projects from a technical standpoint. Jeff delivered technical risk decisions on an ultra-deepwater platform with scopes including deck extensions, living quarters, temporary cranes, topsides and platform rig modifications, and topsides modules. Jeff supervised engineering from design through installation and provided leadership planning to drilling, construction, and operation scopes.

Jeff provided assurance for an offshore modification project that experienced physical damage and was further complicated by the legal issues of a bankrupt operator.

Jeff leveraged his deep knowledge of a foreign country’s regulations on international projects to guide clients on future substructure design developments.

Facility Development Engineer – Offshore Upstream
Jeff was appointed the project manager and lead structural engineer for intermediate and deep gas exploration projects from early design studies to facility installations. Project scopes included jackets, decks, caissons, conductors, skids, equipment, and other specialty structural items. Jeff is experienced in managing all disciplines from design analysis, cost estimating & scheduling, contract bidding & bid evaluations to performing contractor & inspector oversight. As the owner’s engineer, Jeff oversaw various work scopes including specification development and selection, design criteria development, installation, collapse assessment, and permitting.

On separate international projects, Jeff reimaged abandoned fields to provide LNG source gas for export and export gas to shore. Jeff’s studies have been used as a guide to navigate complex international regulations on multi-fixed platform development plans.

Design Engineer – Refineries & Offshore Upstream
As the lead structural engineer, Jeff led the structural engineering design aspect for multiple oil & gas projects such as chemical processing plants, fixed drilling platforms, and deep offshore drilling platforms. He developed the final design for modular refineries fabricated internationally and installed in the US. He also performed bespoke engineering for seismic and earthquake-sensitive projects located in remote offshore regions, focusing on minimal modifications to aging facilities. Jeff has also led the structural engineering discipline through project transitioning phases, from spar to semi-maintaining leanings on a mega offshore platform. He evaluated value and risk drivers across multiple construction methods to design topside spars, tension leg platforms, and semisubmersible options. These studies included a review of the weight savings from the integrated hull and topsides for semisubmersible options.