Olive oil production in Australia has increased significantly in the past decade, and will soon reach about forty thousand tonnes per annum. While some Mediterranean countries have well established, modern olive oil industries, the Australian industry is still in its infancy. In order to compete in the world market, the Australian olive oil industry requires information on the response of olive cultivars in Australian conditions, especially when to harvest and irrigate to produce high quality olive oil. This study investigated the effect of harvest timing and irrigation on the quality of olive oil. It was conducted on a commercial olive grove in southern New South Wales over a three year period. It involved harvesting, extraction and analysis of the oil at 6 harvest times from early February to late July. A number of irrigation regimes were imposed in this study, although management was difficult due to drought conditions and lack of available water. The study provides very useful information and guidelines not only for the Australian olive industry, but also for the international olive oil producing community. / Master of Science (Hons)

Abstract   Problem discussion: The significance of the oil industry’s impact on the global economy is obvious. Oil supply chain management has to solve a lot of challenges caused by the nature of the supply chain in the oil industry such as complexity, inflexible characteristics, long lead time, limited transportation forms at the different stages in the supply chain, rigid take or pay procurement and limited primary distribution capacity. Other challenges are caused by unforeseen events such as political or economic changes which have an impact on the price of the oil. This thesis seeks to add value by signifying and indicating optimization as a way to address uncertainties and points out a way to utilize resources efficiently in order to gain further development and cost savings in the long term. Finding options for optimization of the oil supply chain is vital because any cost saving means vast amounts of money for the oil companies therefore optimization is at the centre of attention in the oil supply chain management. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate supply chain management in the oil industry and find options for optimizing the supply chain in the oil industry by reviewing and analyzing previously written literature on the chosen topic for the research.  Method: A single case study was applied in this thesis. The company chosen for the case study is called MOL Hungarian oil and gas PLC and is located in Hungary. To carry out the research, a qualitative research approach was implemented. Primary data was collected through semi structured interviews via telephone and the internet with the company’s staff. In addition to this, secondary data from different sources such as articles and books were used to construct or build the theoretical frame of reference for the thesis.  Delimitation: The scope of the thesis is limited to the supply chain management in the oil industry and its optimization. Further narrowing the scope, this thesis gives more attention to the downstream section of the supply chain in the oil industry. Conclusion: Optimization is recognised as main tool for the oil companies to achieve competitive advantage. Analysing MOL Group gives a factual example how optimization works in an oil company and contributes to manage its supply chain efficiently and handle the many uncertainties surrounding the oil industry. It is demonstrated what factors play key role in optimization and how they interact with each other. MOL Group’s solution for optimization builds around a serious planning process, IT solution, marketing and refinery operation triggering and working in synergy with many other factors which cannot be excluded from the optimization process. Due to the excellence of supply chain optimization, MOL Group has a very strong presence and leading position in the East Central European region generating increasing profit margin year by year in last two decades.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Peninsula Technikon, 2002. / Word processed copy. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-82). Also available online.

This thesis examines the methods used by high reliability industries to collect incident data regarding the human factors causes and uses this information to develop a tool for the investigation of accidents and incidents. The focus is the UK offshore oil gas industry, where attention to human behaviour in incident analysis has increased in importance with the reliability of technology. It is proposed that such analysis is also applicable to other high reliability organisations. Reviews of accident causation research, incident reporting and investigation systems, as well as safety climate studies, have provided the basis for three empirical studies. Two reporting forms and one investigation tool have been designed and tested in the offshore oil and gas industry. The first reporting form contains 11 open questions to be completed by the witnesses to incidents. The second reporting form contains 166 questions, which provide more cues for the users to describe the possible causes of the incident. The human factors investigation tool (HFIT) is a more complex method of collecting incident data and contains a total of 391 questions to aid investigators determine the contributing factors to the incident. This thesis provides some evidence that the two reporting forms and the investigation tool have improved the investigation of the human factors causes of incidents over and above the oil companies existing systems. This was accomplished by applying psychological theories and methods successfully used in other industries to develop the reporting and investigation system which focus mainly on the human and organisational causes of accidents. HFIT combines aspects from a number of investigation tools currently used in other industries, such as processes for investigation and causal codes. In addition, the question set of categories, elements, sub-elements and item codes has been developed as a computer programme which is a unique system for incident investigation. The system includes an original set of team working and safety culture questions based on current research in these areas.

Doctor of Philosophy / The apparent increase in market concentration and vertical integration in the Indonesian crude palm oil (CPO) industry has led to concerns about the presence of market power. For the Indonesian CPO industry, such concerns attract more attention because of the importance of this sector to the Indonesian economy. CPO is used as the main raw material for cooking oil (which is an essential commodity in Indonesia) and it contributes significantly to export earnings and employment. However, dominant producers argue that the increase in economies of scale and scope lead to an increase in the efficiency, which eventually will be beneficial for the end consumers and export earnings. This research seeks to examine whether the dominant producers do behave competitively and pass the efficiency gains to the end consumers, or they enhance inefficiency through market power instead. In order to identify the most suitable model to measure market power in the Indonesian CPO industry, different market power models are explored. These models can be divided into static and dynamic models. In general, all of them accept the price–cost margins as a measure of market power. However, static models fail to reveal the dynamic behaviour that determines market power; hence the dynamic models are likely to be more appropriate to modelling market power. Among these dynamic models, the adjustment model with a linear quadratic specification is considered to be a more appropriate model to measure market power in the Indonesian CPO industry. In the Indonesian CPO industry, producers can be divided into three groups, namely the public estates, private companies and smallholders. However, based on their ability to influence market price, smallholders are not considered as one of the dominant groups. By using the adjustment cost model, the market power of the dominant groups is estimated. The model is estimated using a Bayesian technique annual data spanning 1968–2003. The public estates and private companies are assumed to engage in a noncooperative game. They are assumed to use Markovian strategies, which permit firms to respond to changes in the state vector. In this case, the vector comprises the firms and their rivals’ previous action, implying that firms respond to changes in their rivals’ previous action. The key contribution of this thesis is the relaxation of the symmetry assumption in the estimation process. Although the existence of an asymmetric condition often complicates the estimation process, the different characteristics of the public estates and private companies lead to a need for relaxing such an assumption. In addition, the adjustment system—which can be seen as a type of reaction function—is not restricted to have downward slopes. Negative reaction functions are commonly assumed for a quantity setting game. However, the reverse may occur in particular circumstances. Without such restrictions, the analysis could reveal the type of interaction between the public estates and private companies. In addition, it provides insights into empirical examples of conditions that might lead to the positive reaction function. Furthermore, the analysis adds to the understanding of the impact of positive reaction functions to avoid the complicated estimation of the asymmetric case. As expected, the public estates act as the leader, while the private companies are the follower. Interestingly, results indicate that as well as the private companies, public estates do exert some degree of market power. Moreover, the public estates enjoy even higher market power than the private companies, as indicated by market power indices of -0.46 and -0.72, respectively. The exertion of market power by both the public estates and the private companies cast some doubts about the effectiveness of some current policies in the Indonesian CPO industry. With market power, the underlying assumption of a perfectly competitive market condition—that serves as the basis for the government interventions—is no longer applicable. Hence, many government interventions are unlikely to have the desired effect. The Indonesian competition law that has been imposed since 1999 might be effective in preventing firms to sign collusive contracts. In fact, even without such an agreement, firms in the CPO industry are likely to exert some degree of market power. As an alternative, eliminating the ‘sources’ of market power might be a better solution. If the public estates have the aim of maximising welfare, privatisation might improve their efficiency, hence they have ability to suppress the private companies’ market power. However, if in fact, the public estates deliberately reduce output to gain higher profit, privatisation might increase the degree of market power of both groups of companies even further. In such a condition, addressing the long term barriers of entry stemming from the requirement of high investment might be a better alternative to address the market power problem in the CPO industry.

Thesis (M.Bus(Taxation))--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1990. / Includes bibliography.

Thesis (M. Bus. )--Edith Cowan University, 2006. / Submitted to the Faculty of Business and Law. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.), Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1998. / Bibliography: leaves 230-240.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-156). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-156). Also available on the Internet.