Abstract
Over recent years, frequent involvements in claims have been inevitable due to unpredictable economic changes and increasing complexities in construction industry. Therefore, even appropriately made contracts are not exempted from claims. On the other hand, construction contract claims are time-consuming, expense-involving and most likely leading to unsatisfactory results. However, there may be some positive outcomes, such as time extension or compensation of damages. To launch investigations, a list of important and frequent claims in oil and gas industry projects of Iran was extracted after a succinct documents review. Further, the most important claim causes were identified through conducting a questionnaire survey among contractors, consultants, owners and lawyers involved in such projects. Reliability of responses has been examined, accordingly. The study reveals that the external risks like political, social, cultural and economical issues are the most important causes for claims in this industry. Moreover, inadequate financial resources on the part of owner and contractor, failure in performing contractor’s obligations and vague contract conditions resulted in formation of different interpretations; are some of the most important root causes of claims in this context.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abd El-Razek, M. E., Bassioni, H., and Abd El-Salam, W. (2007). “Investigation into the causes of claims in Egyptian building construction.” Proc. 23rd Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference (ARCOM), Belfast, UK, pp. 147–156.
Alkass, S., Mazerolle, M., and Harris, F. (1996). “Construction delay analysis techniques.” Journal of Construction management and economics, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 375–394, DOI: 10.1080/014461996373250.
Al-Moumani, H. A. (2000). “Construction delay: A quantitative analysis.” International Journal of project Management, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 51–59, DOI: 10.1016/S0263-7863(98)00060-X.
Blake Dawson Waldron (2006). “Scope for improvement a survey of pressure points in Australian construction and infrastructure projects.” Australian Constructors Association, Sydney NSW, Australia.
Bunni, N.G. (2005). The FIDIC forms of contract, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Third Edition, UK.
Diekmann, J. E. and Giraed, M. J. (1995). “Are contract disputes predictable?.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, Vol. 121, No. 4, pp. 355–363, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1995)121:4(355).
Eilenberg, I. M. (2003). Dispute resolution in construction management, University of New South Wales Press (UNSW) Sydney, Australia.
Jergeas, G. F. and Hartman, F. T. (1994). “Contactors’ constructionclaims avoidance.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, ASCE, Vol. 120, No. 3, pp. 553–561, DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(1994)120:3(553).
Kumaraswamy, M. (1997). “Conflicts, claims and disputes in construction.” Journal of Engineering Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 95–111, DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-232X.1997.00087.x.
Mapfre, R. E. (2010). Manual on construction risk, damage to the works and advanced loss of profits (ALOP), http://www.mapfre.com/mapfrere/en/cinformativo/other-publications.shtml/.
Martilla, J. A. and James, J. C. (1977). “Importance-performance analysis.” Journal of Marketing, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 77–79, DOI: 10.2307/1250495.
McGeorge, D. and Palmer, A. (2002). Construction management: New directions, Wiley-Blackwell Oxford, UK.
Mortaheb, M. M. and Ahmadian, A. (2011). “Identification of business risks in management of infrastructure projects in iran.” Proc. 2nd International Conference on Business and Economics, Tibet, China, pp. 125–134.
Nunnally, S. W. (2007). Construction methods and management, Prentice Hall, 8th Edition USA.
Project Management Institute (2000). Construction extension to a guide to the project management body of knowledge, PMI, USA.
Robbins, S. and Judge, T. (2007). Essentials of organizational behavior, Twelfth Edition, Prentice Hall USA.
Santos, A. (1999). “Cronbach’s alpha: A tool for assessing the reliability of scales.” Journal of Extension Information Technology, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 1–4.
Skene, M. and Shaban, R. (2002). “Strategies to avoid and resolve construction disputes.” Proc. Canadian Construction Association Conference, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 1–22.
Suryawanshi, C. S. (2010). Analysis of claims based on provisions in 4th edition of FIDIC contracts, Sr. Techno Legal Consultant Mumbai.
Walker, D. M. (1980). The oxford companion to law, Clarendon Press Oxford, p. 227.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hasheminasab, S.H., Mortaheb, M.M. & Ahmadian F. F, A. Causes of common and frequent claims in oil, gas and petrochemical projects of Iran. KSCE J Civ Eng 18, 1270–1278 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0422-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0422-5