As regards the turnkey approach, no matter how detailed the description of the bidder’s scope of supply in the SS document, it is highly advisable for the owner to protect himself with a ‘completeness clause’ clearly stating that the bidder is requested and shall therefore be committed to delivering a licensable and functionally complete plant, including all the services, structures, systems and components required for the plant to operate safely in accordance with the applicable codes, standards and regulatory require­ments of the country and in compliance with the owner’s technical require­ments as laid out in the BIS.

When the owner has opted for the split-package or multi-package approach, redacting the SS document becomes a more complex undertak­ing to ensure that each plant scope item is clearly assigned either to the owner or to one of the package suppliers. Following are some practical recommendations:

1. A SS document should be prepared specifically for each individual large package (e. g. NI, TI, BOP, civil works) making up the complete plant. This SS document shall describe the scope of supply of the owner, that of the supplier and that of other participants for each specific large package.

2. As there will be several package suppliers, the overall responsibility of defining the scope limits (terminal points) for each package, of integrat­ing all packages, of coordinating the various suppliers, and of managing and resolving interfaces among project participants remains with the owner.

3. In addition to the establishing the scope of supply and services of the owner, the SS document for each package shall clearly specify who is responsible for the performance of the following tasks referring to the overall project, which are not included in the scope of any of the indi­vidual packages:

• Overall project management

• Overall project schedule management

• Overall site management

• Overall plant commissioning management

• Licensing support coordination of the entire plant

• Management of interfaces between package suppliers

• Overall plant performance guarantee.

It is understood that each package supplier will be responsible for the project management, scheduling, construction and commissioning of his own package. Different package suppliers, as well as all other partici­pants in the project, should be given a clear understanding of who will take overall responsibility for the management and integration of the various packages that make up the complete plant. The owner may decide to keep for himself the performance of these tasks for the entire project or he may hire an architect-engineering firm to perform these services. The latter, acting as the owner’s engineer, will be responsible for overall management and integration of all packages on behalf of the owner.

4. Here again, the IAEA account system (IAEA, 2000) (or any other equivalent account system) provides guidance for the systematic check­ing of proper assignment to the owner, supplier or other project partici­pant of all items that should be included in the scope of each package, and to ensure that no item has been overlooked.

5. It is good practice for the SS document to include a requirement of ‘functional completeness’ for the structures, systems and components constituting the package, that is, all piping and cables installed, all con­nections completed, and all fluids (oil, water, air, gases) delivered to the terminal points at the interfacing conditions agreed, which means that all systems and components should be fully operational.