Tundra Engineering delivers engineering, procurement and construction management for upstream and midstream oil and gas facilities across North America. We work from two offices, Calgary, Alberta and Houston, Texas, as the owner’s engineer, which means the engineering, the procurement and the construction management all sit under one accountable team rather than being split across vendors who each optimise for their own scope.
What EPCM actually means
EPCM stands for engineering, procurement and construction management. It is often confused with EPC, but the commercial structure is different in a way that matters to the owner. Under an EPC contract the contractor takes the capital risk, prices that risk into a lump sum, and owns the equipment decisions. Under EPCM the owner holds the contracts and the capital, and the EPCM firm supplies the engineering discipline, runs the procurement process and manages the trades in the field on the owner’s behalf.
That distinction gives an operator visibility into where the money goes, the ability to change scope mid-project without a change-order fight, and direct relationships with equipment vendors. It also puts more responsibility on the EPCM firm to be genuinely independent. We do not resell equipment and we do not carry a fabrication arm, so the specification we write is the specification the facility needs.
How we run an EPCM project
Most of our work starts with a constraint rather than a blank sheet: a plant that cannot take more inlet volume, a battery that is off-spec, a compressor that trips in summer, a regulatory deadline that is closer than the schedule allows. The first phase is almost always measurement and process review before any drafting begins, because the as-built condition of an older producing facility is rarely what the drawings say it is.
From there the project moves through detailed design, long-lead procurement, fabrication oversight, field construction management and commissioning. The same process engineers who set the heat and material balance stay on the file through startup. That continuity is the main reason schedules hold.
Disciplines we cover
The service groups below are the building blocks we assemble into a project. Most facility work draws on several at once, and every discipline is available from either office.
The process side of every one of them is owned by our chemical and process engineering group.
Gas facilities
- gas processing facility design
- gas treating and sweetening
- compressor station design
- gas plant refrigeration
- oil battery design
Upstream infrastructure
Process safety and optimization
- plant HAZOP facilitation
- plant debottlenecking
- turnaround planning and execution
- management of change
Emissions and environment
Automation and electrical
Asset lifecycle and compliance
Regulatory
Digital and field data
Rotating equipment
Two offices, one delivery model
Facility engineering does not travel well without local knowledge. Winterization, metallurgy for sour service, submission requirements and the practical realities of getting equipment onto a remote lease are all jurisdiction-specific, and the regulator you answer to changes what the design has to prove.
Our Calgary EPCM office covers Western Canada, working to Alberta Energy Regulator requirements and the provincial frameworks that sit alongside them. Our Houston EPCM office covers the US Gulf Coast and the wider American onshore market, including Alaska’s North Slope, working to Texas Railroad Commission and state environmental requirements. Both offices run the same delivery model and draw on the same discipline pool, so a project is staffed by whoever knows the process, not by whoever is nearest.
Our principal engineer is licensed as a Professional Engineer in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Alaska and Wisconsin, and registered in Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, with matching firm registrations in those jurisdictions. Ten jurisdictions under one seal means a project that crosses a border does not also have to cross firms, and registration numbers are provided on request for prequalification.
That reach is not theoretical. Alongside our Western Canadian gas facility record, we have delivered arctic oil and gas work on Alaska’s North Slope for an Alaskan explorer and engineered an industrial-scale carbon removal plant in Colorado. The common thread is process facilities in places where logistics, permitting and weather constrain the design as much as the process does.
Talk to us about your project
If you have a facility constraint, a capital project in early definition, or a compliance deadline you are trying to design around, we can scope it. Get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether it is work we are the right firm for.