National oil companies (NOCs) control over 80 percent of world oil reserves and over 50 percent of gas reserves and hold exclusive rights to exploration and development of oil and gas reserves within their home countries. Because of host government involvement and supervision, NOCs may also act as instruments of state, implementing government foreign and domestic policies such as wealth re-distribution through the provision of subsidised oil products, job creation, and economic development. Such activities can lead to restricted availability of funds for finding and developing reserves for future production and to inefficiencies in current production and distribution. This thesis assesses the geopolitical factors that influence the conduct, strategies and priorities of NOCs and how these may impact on the continuing security of energy supplies to countries which are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It will focus on ten NOCs supplying oil to world markets and two which supply gas to the European market. The study will also review the activities and .scope for influence as state instruments of Sovereign Wealth Funds which have been established by states with NOCs, in particular, those which have earned substantial petro-dollar surpluses, during the period of high oil and gas prices of2006-2008. In an age of global interdependence between nations, specific objectives of this thesis are to consider the implications of anticipated growth in world demand for oil and gas supplies over the next 20 years, whether world production capacity is likely to grow to meet increases in world demand, the potential impact on world oil and gas supplies of the policies and practices of NOCs, in particular, the desire of host governments to require NOCs to follow non- commercial objectives, and the responses from OECD countries to threats to their energy security from potential restrictions on supplies.

Major changes in organizational structural paradigms have been occurring. Recent journal articles propose that the older philosophies of expanding organizations and increasing internal specialization are no longer viable means to enhance competitiveness as espoused in earlier journal articles. Downsizing, rightsizing, and business process reengineering have all been used as methods of accomplishing organizational work force reduction (OWFR) and enhancing organizational posture. It has been established that as organizations grow, specialization increases. Causes for OWFR have not been established nor have effects upon structure been studied. Previous structural factor studies have focused upon organizations engaged in end-game strategies done during periods of internal and economic growth. This study evaluates the impacts of OWFR and its relationship to the structural factor of specialization during a non-munificent economic period. Three independent variables, dis-integration, change in the number of employees, and change in technology, were used as measures to determine whether specialization decreased when organizations downsized. The dependent variable, specialization, was obtained through a pre-tested questionnaire. The three independent variables were obtained using the Compustat data base as a secondary source of information. The Compustat data was verified using data from Compact Disclosure. Questionnaires were mailed to fifty-one fully integrated oil companies. Forty were returned after three mailings yielding a response rate of seventy-eight percent. The unit of analysis for the data collected was the firm. The data were analyzed using multiple regression to determine the strength of the relationship between the variables. Results indicate a significant relationship between two of the independent variables and the dependent variable: dis-integration and specialization and change in the number of employees and specialization. Findings were insignificant for the third independent variable and the dependent variable: change in technology and specialization. Analysis of the quantitative results and the qualitative responses of the participants show that dis-integration and a change in the number of employees are both useful for measuring structural change for organizations engaged in organizational work force reduction.

The main body of this thesis is composed of four chapters: Chapter II is concerned with the development of the oil industry in Texas prior to the discovery of Spindletop; Chapter III deals with Spindletop; Chapter IV sets forth the later developments of the oil industry in Southeast Texas or Railroad Commission District No. 3; Chapter V is the concluding chapter, complete with summary, evaluation present status and future possibilities of the oil industry in Southeast Texas.

"The object of writing this thesis was to present a brief though fairly detailed history of the oil industry in Texas. The material and facts contained herein were gathered from various sources including books, newspapers, magazines, bulletins, radio programs, letters, and authorized conversations. The main body of this thesis is composed of seven chapters, each of which deals with a certain phase of the oil industry of its effects."--leaf iii

Atividades humanas podem causar degradação e impedir que serviços ambientais cheguem á sociedade. Evitá-la demanda constante monitoramento, que pode ser realizado com indicadores ambientais. Buscamos selecionar indicadores da exploração de petróleo nas comunidades microbianas de riachos da Amazônia, Mata Atlântica, Cerrado e Caatinga. Avaliamos as diversidades taxonômica (Sequenciamento 16S) e funcional (GeoChip 5.0M) e comparamos os resultados de amostras de água, sedimento, biofilme e solo das margens de riachos influenciados por campos de petróleo com áreas de referência. Todas as estações apresentaram alta riqueza, baixa similaridade taxonômica e alta similaridade funcional. Impactos da atividade de exploração de petróleo foram relacionados ao uso do solo e não à contaminação por hidrocarbonetos, já que as estações não tinham histórico de vazamentos. Os indicadores identificados não foram atreldos a grupos taxonômicos ou atividades metabólicas específicas, sendo mais promissora a utilização de um conceito baseado em sequencias genéticas indicadoras. / Human activities can cause degradation and prevent environmental services from reaching society. Avoid it demand constant monitoring, which can be carried out with environmental indicators. We sought to select indicators of oil exploration in the microbial communities of streams in the Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Cerrado and Caatinga morphoclimatic domains. We evaluated taxonomic (16S Sequencing) and functional (GeoChip 5.0M) diversity and compared the results from water, sediment, biofilm and soil (from the margins of streams) samples influenced by oil fields with reference areas. All of them presented high richness, low taxonomic similarity and high functional similarity. Impacts of the oil exploration activity are related to the use of soil and not to hydrocarbon contamination, since the sampling stations we choose are historically not affected by oil spills. The indicators we identified are not related to taxonomic groups or specific metabolic activities, and the use of a concept based on indicator sequences is more promising.

Um campo interessante para aplicação de técnicas nucleares devido à complexidade dos problemas a serem estudados e importante devido ao forte impacto econômico e estratégico é a industria de petróleo. Pelas técnicas nucleares podem ser obtidas informações preciosas. A utilização de traçadores auxilia a caracterização de um reservatório de petróleo e permite que se tomem posteriormente decisões importantes para o processo de recuperação deste recurso natural. O estudo é feito em uma malha envolvendo poços injetores e produtores, mas com um único traçador não é possível discriminar a contribuição de diferentes injetores para um determinado produtor. Devido a necessidade de se ter vários traçadores para serem usados na recuperação de poços de petróleo é proposto o desenvolvimento de traçadores ativáveis. Foram escolhidos para serem usados como traçadores elementos do grupo dos terras raras lantânio (La) e európio (Eu) por apresentarem elevada seção de choque e facilidade de obtenção. Estes elementos foram complexados com quelantes orgânicos para diminuir o grau de perdas ou retardo do traçador em relação à fase aquosa. Esses quelantes são os ácidos aminopolicarboxílicos EDTA, DTPA e DOTA. Para verificar se ocorreu a complexação foi feita análise por espectrometria no infravermelho. Com o resultado observou-se que houve a complexação em todos as amostras. Para separar interferentes como sódio, cloro e bromo presentes na água de produção foi utilizado um processo de coprecipitação. O processo foi eficiente já que conseguiu precipitar os terras raras separando-os do sódio e bromo presentes na água. Para verificar a partição do traçador com a fase oleosa e a fase aquosa foi realizado o teste de partição e em seguida calculado o coeficiente de partição ( Kao ) para todos os complexos (traçadores) em todos os testes. Foi realizado um teste em corpo de prova para determinar os parâmetros de interação do traçador candidato com a rocha. Foram utilizados como traçador o trítio, La-EDTA e cloreto de európio. No caso do trítio, que serviu como referência para avaliação dos demais traçadores, não ocorreu retenção do traçador no interior dos poros do corpo de prova. Para o cloreto de európio e La-EDTA observou-se a ocorrência de adsorção nas superfícies internas dos poros do corpo de prova, seguida de dessorção. / The application of nuclear techniques to the oil industry has both scientific and economical interest due to the complexity of the questions that have to be answered and to the strong economic and strategic impact of the fuel production activity. Valuable information can be obtained employing nuclear methods. In particular, they are instrumental in describing detailed flow patterns and other features of oil reservoirs that are unattainable to other methods. Besides, the information they provide substantiate more sound decisions on actions related to the recovery of this important natural resource. Tracer studies in oil fields are performed in a net of injection and producing wells. Thus, the use of only one tracer species would not discriminate the contributions of distinct injector wells to the response of a given production well. Hence, a multi-tracer experiment is required, and in to meet this purpose the use of activable tracers is proposed. As additional tracers lanthanum (La) and europium (Eu) were chosen from the rare earth series due to their large neutron cross sections and availability. In order to decrease losses to the oil phase and retardation of the tracer relatively to the aqueous phase, these elements were complexed with organic chelating ligands: the polyamino-carboxylic acids EDTA, DTPA , and DOTA. Infrared spectrometry was used to check complexation. Its results showed that complexation occurred in all the samples. A coprecipitation process was used to eliminate interfering agents such as sodium, chlorine, and bromine present in the water. The procedure proved to be efficient since it succeeded in precipitating the rare earths, thus separating them from the sodium and bromine dissolved in the water. In order to check the partition of the tracer between the aqueous and organic phases, tests were carried stirring the two phases together and measuring the tracer concentrations in the aqueous phase; the partition coefficient was ( Kao ) then calculated for all the combinations of the two lanthanides and three ligands. Continuous tests pumping the tracer through reservoir rock samples were also carried. Tritiated water was used as a reference tracer and the lanthanides employed were in form of La- EDTA and EuCl3. The last two were somewhat retarded due to adsorption followed by desorption in either the rock or oil phases

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M. Tech. Comparative Local Development / The research analyses and reviews the existing literature on the impact of oil revenues on development policies in Chad. It focuses on a comparative analysis of policies designed before and after the 2003 oil era such as the National Poverty Reduction Strategies, namely theStrategieNationale pour la Reduction de la Pauvrete 1 and Strategie Nationale pour la Reduction de la Pauvrete 2. The study then draws lessons from the experiences of other countries that have succeeded in promoting oil-led development, in order to propose recommendations for a new oil-exporting country like Chad.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

This research investigates the specific labour market dynamics that underline the shortage of engineers in the Petrochemical Industry in South Africa. The central argument of this dissertation is that an understanding of a skills shortage requires a distinct knowledge of the internal and external nature of each labour market in which the shortage is being experienced. This dissertation develops a critique of the neoclassical perspective which dominates current analysis of skill shortages. While it is important to understand the external labour market, it is equally important to consider the internal labour market to better identify and understand the specific dynamics that underline a skills shortage in an organisation and industry. Using Engen Refinery as a case study, this dissertation focuses on an in depth examination of the experiences of engineers working at the Refinery. The findings reveal that the dynamics that underline the skill shortage of engineers in the Petrochemical Industry in the South African context are manifold. Skill shortages are a consequence of dynamics in both the external and internal labour market; these I argue are interrelated. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.