The Top 5 Reasons Projects Fail at FEED stage – And How to Avoid Them

Getting to FID Is One Thing. Getting Through It Is Another

For any major energy or infrastructure project, Final Investment Decision (FID) is a critical milestone—the point where plans transition from ambition to action. But in today’s market, simply getting to FID isn’t enough. Investors, lenders, and stakeholders aren’t just looking for a green light; they’re looking for certainty. Certainty that the project is viable, constructible, and sustainable in the long term.

Yet, time and again, we see projects pushed through FEED with gaps in concept development, misaligned designs, or a lack of integration between phases—leaving someone else to fix the problems later. The consequences? Budget overruns, schedule delays, costly rework, and, in worst-case scenarios, projects that never break ground.

At Kent, we take a different approach. We don’t just design to pass FID—we design to ensure projects thrive beyond it.

The Real Challenges of FEED—And How We Solve Them

Achieving FID isn’t just about having an attractive business case. It’s about creating a credible, investment-ready project with the right technical, commercial, and regulatory foundations. From working with clients across the full asset lifecycle, we know the real pain points that threaten FID success. Here’s how we address them:

1. Bridging Gaps in Project Maturity and Cost Certainty

Not all projects arrive at the FEED stage fully developed. Some lack a concept or pre-FEED phase, leading to gaps in cost estimates, technical scope, and project strategy.

At Kent, we recognise that wherever a project stands in its maturity, our technical, project management, and cost experts work alongside clients to fill in any missing pieces, ensuring FEED is built on solid ground. This means credible, investment-grade cost estimates—not just a number on a page, but a well-defined and validated basis for financial confidence. We don’t just give clients a budget; we work within budget constraints to develop the best and most viable solutions without compromising quality or long-term value.

2. Ensuring FEED Designs Are Technically Buildable

Too often, FEED is treated as a box-ticking exercise—getting through the phase without considering constructability in later project stages. The result? Designs that look good on paper but fail in execution, forcing EPC contractors to redesign elements at a premium.

At Kent, we don’t just engineer for FEED—we engineer for the entire project lifecycle. Because we work across Concept, FEED, EPCm, and O&M, we ensure that what we design is practically buildable. Our dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) provides independent project delivery assurance reviews, reinforcing that our designs can be executed without costly surprises.

3. Global Agility with Local Precision

Large-scale projects often require expertise across multiple regions, but clients frequently lack the resources and technical depth to execute FEED at speed and quality.

Kent’s global network of engineering hubs solves this by providing instant access to multi-discipline specialists across all sectors. This isn’t just about scale—it’s about agility and accountability. Our India hub enables cost-effective, high-quality technical outputs, while our regional teams ensure designs are tailored to local regulatory, environmental, and market conditions.

4. Mitigating Supply Chain, Regulatory, and Community Risks

Regulatory uncertainty and supply chain bottlenecks can derail projects before they even reach FID. Clients often struggle to navigate local permitting, access the right vendors, or anticipate sustainability-related regulatory changes that impact their project viability.

Beyond regulations, wider community stakeholders can make or break a project. Kent’s in-house environmental and safety engineers work closely with clients to ensure that projects won’t be blocked due to community opposition. We proactively engage with stakeholders to communicate the benefits and impacts of projects, using sensitive design strategies to overcome concerns and ensure smooth approvals.

Kent leverages its trusted global supply chain network—including surveyors, permitting agencies, and logistics providers—to streamline procurement, approvals, and compliance. We don’t just keep pace with evolving sustainability targets; we future-proof projects, ensuring designs meet the highest environmental standards today and remain compliant tomorrow.

5. Choosing the Right Technology Without Bias

Technology decisions made at Pre-FEED or FEED can define a project’s success. However, many clients require support with selecting the most appropriate licensor, OEM or specialist vendor and on some projects that can include a combination of a number of them that requires very careful understanding of the interfaces between them for an optimal holistic solution.

Kent’s technology-agnostic approach leveraging on our rich global SME resources that all our projects have access to means we evaluate solutions solely on their techno economic merit, ensuring clients adopt technologies that are the best fit for their specific project needs, rather than being locked into proprietary systems that limit flexibility down the line.

The Path to a Confident FID

Securing FID requires more than just technical accuracy—it demands credibility, constructability, and a clear line of sight to execution. Kent’s end-to-end project expertise means we don’t design in silos. We engineer with the full project lifecycle in mind, ensuring clients, investors, and stakeholders can move forward with confidence.

So, the real question isn’t just how do you get to FID?

It’s how do you get through FID with a project that actually works?

At Kent, we have the answer.

This article was originally published in Energy Connects. View here.