Glossary

The terms used across EPC Feed, in plain words. Contracts and procurement rules define them precisely; these definitions explain how EPC Feed uses them.

EPC: Engineering, procurement and construction: a contract in which one contractor designs the facility in detail, buys the equipment and materials, and builds it, usually handing it over ready to operate.
EPCI and EPCIC: EPC plus installation, used offshore where the contractor also installs platforms, pipelines or subsea equipment; EPCIC adds commissioning.
EPCM: Engineering, procurement and construction management: the contractor engineers the project and manages procurement and construction on the owner’s behalf, while the construction contracts usually sit with the owner.
FEED: Front-end engineering design: the engineering that defines a project well enough to estimate its cost and tender the EPC contract, usually before a final investment decision.
PDP: Process design package: the technology licensor’s definition of a process unit, which the FEED and EPC contractors build on.
FID: Final investment decision: the owner’s commitment to fund and build a project. Many EPC awards are conditional on it.
Letter of intent (LOI): A document in which an owner states its intention to award a contract, often funding limited early work before the contract is signed.
Limited notice to proceed (LNTP): An instruction to start defined early activities, such as engineering or ordering long-lead equipment, before the full contract is in force.
Design and build: A contract in which one contractor carries both the detailed design and the construction, common for roads, railways and water networks.
Design, build and operate (DBO): Design and build followed by a period in which the contractor operates and maintains the asset for the owner.
Design, supply and installation: The World Bank’s “Plant” contract form, in which the contractor designs, supplies, installs and commissions equipment such as substations, lines or power plants.
Request for bids (RFB): An invitation to submit priced bids against a defined specification. Older World Bank notices call it an invitation for bids.
Request for proposals (RFP): An invitation to submit technical and financial proposals, used when the bidder contributes design or method.
Request for expressions of interest: An early notice asking firms to register interest, usually before a shortlist or prequalification.
Two-envelope bidding: Technical and financial parts are submitted separately; the financial envelopes of bidders that pass the technical stage are opened later.
Rated criteria: Evaluation that weighs technical and other factors alongside price, so the lowest price does not necessarily win.
Bid security: A guarantee, usually a bank guarantee, that a bidder forfeits if it withdraws its bid or refuses an award. A bid-securing declaration replaces it with a pledge.
Evaluated bid price: A bid price after the corrections and adjustments the bidding rules require; it can differ from both the price read out at opening and the signed contract price.
Contract award notice: The official publication of who won a contract, usually with the price and the other bidders.
Data date: The status date of a project schedule, drawn as a vertical line: work to its left is history, work to its right is forecast. The EPC Feed mark is built on it.
Anywhere on Earth (AoE): Reading a date as ending when it has ended everywhere, at UTC−12. EPC Feed uses it when a notice gives no time zone.
BESS: Battery energy storage system.
FPSO: Floating production, storage and offloading unit: a ship-shaped facility that processes and stores oil and gas offshore.
KTA and Mtpa: Kilotonnes per annum and million tonnes per annum, the usual capacity units for process plants and LNG.