by Wong Yuk, Nat. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-53). / Chapter CHAPTER I --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER II --- OBJECTIVE --- p.5 / Chapter CHPATER III --- SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY --- p.7 / Chapter CHPATER IV --- GENERAL INFORMATION --- p.9 / Chapter CHAPTER V --- MARKET PROFILE --- p.12 / Chapter CHPATER VI --- PRODUCT PROFILE --- p.17 / Physical Properties --- p.17 / Modes of Storage and Delivery --- p.17 / Importance of Quality --- p.19 / Package of Product --- p.20 / Chapter CHAPTER VII --- COMPETITION PROFILE --- p.21 / Potential Entrance and Substitutes --- p.21 / Suppliers and Buyers --- p.22 / Industry Competitors --- p.23 / Imported Gas Marketers --- p.24 / Local Gas Suppliers --- p.27 / Chapter CHAPTER VIII --- TARGET MARKETS --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER IX --- SWOT ANALYSIS --- p.31 / Strengths --- p.31 / Weaknesses --- p.32 / Opportunities --- p.33 / Threats/Limitations --- p.35 / Chapter CHAPTER X --- MARKETING AND PROMOTION STRATEGIES --- p.37 / Efficiency in Heating --- p.37 / Bottle Deposit System --- p.38 / Product Differentiation --- p.39 / Contract with Industrial Customers --- p.41 / Chapter CHAPTER XI --- REALIZABLE VOLUME AND FINANCIAL EVALUATION --- p.43 / Chapter CHAPTER XII --- CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION --- p.46 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.50

Summary in Chinese. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 123-125.

The principal objective of this study was to investigate process simulation and optimization of an existing offshore natural gas process which needed profitability improvements. Optimization was done using two alternative approaches: a global approach (response surface methodology) or a local approach (successive quadratic programming). The global approach was characterized by process performance at selected case study points throughout the feasible operating region and made use of global information, while the local approach was characterized by numerical iterative computation driven by local information in the neighborhood of a single point in the design space. A Box-Behnken design was used as a second-order response surface design for the estimation of correlation between process simulator design variables and an economic objective function, and the estimation model was then optimized. In the local approach, a process simulator (ASPEN PLUS) with optimization capabilities was used. From the investigation, three major design variables were identified that had significant effects on the objective function of maximum product sales value. The three variables were: the compression ratio of the Production Compressor, the heat duty of the Gas/Gas Exchanger, and the compression ratio of the Expander. The results indicated that profitability of the offshore natural gas process could be improved by greatly (about 60%) increasing the production of raw condensate, even though this meant slightly lower (about 4%) sales of natural gas as a main product. The improvement found, however, was only 7% when the design variables were limited by currently installed equipment. The global approach was found to converge more consistently because once the global quadratic model was calculated, convergence to its unique optimum was simple. On the other hand the local approach had non-unique termination points due to the small effects of some design variables. The global approach provided better engineering insight since the effects of each design variable could be easily calculated from the quadratic model. However, the global approach was less efficient in terms of engineering manpower because of the time required to identify the quadratic model. / Graduation date: 1995

The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinder market consist of a group of consumers with similar yet differentiated needs, namely commercial customers (small industries, restaurants, wholesalers and nature reserves), low-income customers (such as the rural and township households with a monthly income of R748 - R2288) and high-income customers (such as the urban households with a monthly income above R9743). LPG is mainly used for cooking, lighting, heating, leisure and as a preferred form of energy in the commercial segment. The key issues currently facing the industry are: minimum growth, high capital requirement, rising cost of product and squeezing profitability. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, 2002.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

No description available.

This thesis carries out a comparative analysis between the modes of operation adopted in the oil and gas industries of Nigeria and developed countries (with an emphasis on the UK), examining in the process, the existing and persistent problem of pollution which has plagued the Nigerian State and gone virtually unchecked for over five decades, and dealing with the lacunae in the law currently in place in Nigeria. This analysis is carried out to ascertain the possibility of improving environmental protection in Nigeria. A course is charted through the history and development of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, extensively reviewing the environmental legal regime adopted in Nigeria, with particular reference to the oil and gas industry. Issues concerning inadequacy of legislation are addressed as well as the knotty problem of proper enforcement and indeed compliance within the industry. Also addressed is the extent to which flaring is a significant problem in Nigeria, as this is responsible not only for huge amounts of environmental pollution, but also for the loss of a considerable amount of revenue for the Nigerian government and populace. Furthermore, this thesis considers the difficulty the Nigerian judiciary has in maintaining its impartiality and the problems of corruption as well as the judicial approaches to powerful economic actors. Parallels of the Nigerian oil industry are drawn with the exploration and production processes of oil companies operating in the United Kingdom. As a consequence, this work puts forward possible solutions for the adoption of sustainable practices successfully utilised in developed countries which have not been replicated in Nigeria.

Safety leadership is emerging as a key factor in determining organisational safety performance at all levels of management (Zohar, 2002; 2004). This PhD addresses the relevance and challenges of conducting safety interventions in the workplace. It started out as an evaluation of a safety leadership course in the oil and gas industry, and moved on to conceptualise the underlying difficulties inherent in those conversations and the success factors that help supervisors and managers overcome these challenges. Study One and Study Two focused on attitudes and attitude changes in course participants with increasing focus on attitudes towards safety interventions. Utilising questionnaires designed according to the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985) and Bandura’s concept of selfefficacy and analysing qualitative data, the studies showed that participants’ general safety attitudes, attitudes towards rules and procedures, control beliefs, intentions to perform safety interventions, general self-efficacy and self-efficacy to perform safety interventions would increase from before to after the course. Study Three and Study Four aimed to evaluate participants’ behavioural changes with regard to performing safety interventions. A behavioural rating tool and statistical analysis were utilised in the third study. Results obtained showed a skill gap in managers’ and supervisors’ ability to perform safety interventions 6-12 months after they had attended the course. This skill gap indicated that – despite acknowledgement of the importance of safety interventions and participants’ intentions to frequently perform safety interventions – people did not perform these conversations at the worksite as often as they had intended. Results also indicated that two particular communication strategies, the use of open ended questions and the creation of ‘what-if’ scenarios, were crucial for a positive safety conversation outcome. In the fourth study, discourse analysis techniques and the application of a derived framework on social interaction allowed for a further understanding of the success factors and challenges of safety interventions. Results obtained emphasised particular face keeping strategies that were associated with the successful performance of safety interventions. However, strategies which, once applied, would lead to the failure of a conversation could also be extracted. It could also be shown that the conversation ‘scheme’ that had been taught during the training course was not fit for purpose as it did not enable participants to successfully conduct safety interventions without upsetting their conversation partner.

Shale gas extraction is a technology that is recently arriving in Europe and Germany. The technology brings about a considerable amount of potential environmental threats, but the extraction of shale gas also promises energy security rewards. When the European and German systems for energy and environmental regulation were developed, shale gas extraction did not exist as a technical possibility. Both systems are, hence, not entirely adapted to this technology. This work highlights different ways in which the European and German legislator could act to close existing gaps in their regulatory systems. This could mainly be done by supplementing the existing system with new, shale gas specific regulations. These regulations should be summarized in a new-build shale gas law. The current work tracks the different stages of development of such a new shale gas law, starting from the level of rather abstract constitutional objectives, which translate into clearer defined environmental principles, which in turn translate into a concrete law. Experience from other European states with the legal handling of shale gas extraction teaches that there are essentially two different orientations for such a new-build shale gas law. One is the adoption of a prohibitive moratorium and the other is the implementation of a cautious, but permissive shale gas law. This work`s original contribution to knowledge is the insight that constitutional pre-settings on the interplay of environmental protection with energy security make a cautious, but permissive shale gas law a measure that is legally sounder than a shale gas moratorium. Legally sound, in this context, means complying, to the greatest extent possible, with the applicable constitutional and quasi-constitutional objectives. A shale gas moratorium only serves one purpose, environmental protection, and does not take sufficient account of the energy security objective. A shale gas moratorium only serves one purpose, environmental protection, and does not take sufficient account of the energy security objective. A cautious, but permissive shale gas law, by contrast, possesses the ability to reconcile the competing interests of environmental protection and energy security, which makes it more resilient to judicial review than a moratorium. Having said that, it must be emphasised that shale gas regulation is ultimately a political decision and the legislator is allowed to pick either of the described solutions. This work merely describes which solution is the legally soundest in the sense defined above. To sum up, results from this study will extent what is currently known about the constitutional pre-conditions for the development of shale gas regulation. It highlight that constitutional objectives have a significant impact on the shape of energy regulation.

Natural gas markets are incomplete due to physical limitations and low liquidity, but most valuation approaches for natural gas storage contracts assume a complete market. We propose an alternative approach based on indifference pricing which does not require this assumption but entails the solution of a high- dimensional stochastic-dynamic optimization problem under a risk measure. To solve this problem, we develop a method combining stochastic dual dynamic programming with a novel quantization method that approximates the continuous process of natural gas prices by a discrete scenario lattice. In a computational experiment, we demonstrate that our solution method can handle the high dimensionality of the optimization problem and that solutions are near-optimal. We then compare our approach with rolling intrinsic valuation, which is widely used in the industry, and show that the rolling intrinsic value is sub-optimal under market incompleteness, unless the decision-maker is perfectly risk-averse. We strengthen this result by conducting a backtest using historical data that compares both trading strategies. The results show that up to 40% more profit can be made by using our indifference pricing approach.