Why Energy Projects Fail: The Owner’s Role in Cost, Risk, and Delivery

Major energy projects do not fail simply because of weak contractors, poor controls, or the wrong contract structure. They fail when owners misunderstand their role.In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, Wes Ashworth, President of Lee Group Search, sits down with Gary Fischer, Executive Director of the Project Production Institute and a longtime capital projects leader who spent more than 40 years at Chevron.Gary brings a rare perspective shaped by work across engineering, construction, operations, benchmarking, major project leadership, and enterprise project-system design. After helping architect Chevron’s project management system, he came to a difficult conclusion: even sophisticated project frameworks can produce disappointing results when they ignore how work actually flows through a production system.The conversation centers on one critical idea: capital projects are not products an owner can simply buy. They are production systems that must be actively designed, led, and integrated.Wes and Gary explore the difference between owners who behave like buyers and owners who behave like builders, along with the responsibilities that cannot be outsourced. These include defining the business outcome, setting requirements, managing stakeholders, making timely decisions, shaping the contracting strategy, and retaining accountability for the final result.They also examine why lump-sum EPC contracts do not eliminate owner risk, how traditional metrics can reward excessive work in process, and why adding more people to a delayed project can sometimes make performance worse.Gary shares lessons from major LNG, refinery, offshore, and supply chain environments, including how production control improved collaboration, reduced manpower, accelerated delivery, and helped teams complete more work with fewer resources.The discussion also applies directly to renewable energy, battery storage, hydrogen, transmission, data centers, and other rapidly scaling infrastructure sectors. As companies deploy capital into new technologies and unfamiliar project environments, owner capability may become one of the most important competitive advantages.In this episode:Why project failure is often misdiagnosedWhat separates a capable owner from a passive buyerWhy contractors cannot own the business outcomeHow contracts can obscure risk without truly transferring itWhy production science changes project decision-makingHow excessive work in process delays completionWhy supply chains should be managed as connected production systemsHow rigid stage gates can encourage the wrong behaviorWhat leaders should evaluate before approving major capitalThe first steps organizations can take to strengthen owner capabilityThis episode is essential listening for CEOs, project sponsors, investors, developers, EPC leaders, and anyone responsible for delivering complex energy and infrastructure projects.Gary Fischer is Executive Director of the Project Production Institute and previously held senior project leadership roles at Chevron, including responsibility for Chevron’s project management system and capital project capability.Links: Project Production Institute Website & ResourcesGary Fischer on LinkedInWes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/Email: [email protected]://leegroupsearch.com/green-giants-podcast/https://leegroupsearch.com/