I investigated the effect of energy sector development and introduced crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum) on grassland birds on Canadian Forces Base Suffield. I conducted point counts and mapped breeding territories in 2007 and 2008 for Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis), chestnut-collared longspurs (Calcarius ornatus), and Spragues pipits (Anthus spragueii). I found that Savannah sparrows favored areas with taller vegetation, human disturbances and crested wheatgrass in both years. Longspurs used shorter vegetation and in were tolerant of disturbance. Crested wheatgrass was avoided by longspurs in both years. Pipit territories contained similar vegetation to longspurs, were sensitive to disturbance, and avoided placing territories in areas containing crested wheatgrass or trails in both years. Well sites, pipelines and junctions were not avoided by the three species. My research suggests that reducing the number of trails and the spread of crested wheatgrass will increase habitat availability for sensitive species of grassland birds. / Ecology

This paper aims to examine how the driving forces of the Swedish CNG market have impacted OKQ8’s strategies. This has been conducted through the four drivers’ coercive-, market-, resource- and social drivers. The papers conclusion is that all drivers impact on OKQ8’s strategy but that coercive drivers have the most significant impact on the CNG market and OKQ8’s strategy. OKQ8’s decision to establish a cooperation together with E.ON was smart decision since they minimized their own ambiguity in this market that depends on governmental policies and incentives.

With the depletion of petroleum based fuels and the corresponding concerns of national energy security issues, natural gas as an alternative fuel in IC engine applications has become an attractive option. Natural gas requires minimum mixture preparation, and is chemically stable, both of which make it a suitable fuel for homogeneous charged compression ignition (HCCI) engines. Compared to petroleum based fuels, natural gas produces less green-house emissions. However, natural gas is hard to auto-ignite and therefore requires a higher compression ratio, some amount of intake heating, or some type of pre-ignition. In addition, natural gas usually has large differences in fuel composition from field to field, which adds more uncertainties for engine applications. The current study determines the auto-ignition characteristics, engine performance, and nitric oxides emissions as functions of major operating parameters for a natural gas fueled HCCI engine, and determines differences relative to gasoline fueled HCCI engines which have been studied for many years. These tasks have been done using both zero- and multi-dimensional engine simulations. By zero-dimensional simulation, the effects of varying equivalence ratios, engine speeds, compression ratio, EGR level, intake pressure and fuel compositions are determined and analyzed in detail. To be able to account for the in-cylinder inhomogeneous effect on the HCCI combustion, multi-zone models coupled with cold-flow CFD simulations are employed in addition to the single-zone model. The effects of non-homogeneous temperature and equivalence ratio stratification on the ignition timing, combustion phasing, and emissions formation have been studied and discussed. Finally, the preliminary two-dimensional axial-symmetric CFD simulations have been conducted to study the in-cylinder temperature and the species distributions, which provide better visualization of the natural gas auto-ignition process.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects total natural gas output in the EU to decrease from 216 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/year) in 2006 to 90 bcm/year in 2030. For the same period, EU demand for natural gas is forecast to increase rapidly. In 2006 demand for natural gas in the EU amounted to 532 bcm/year. By 2030, it is expected to reach 680 bcm/year. As a consequence, the widening gap between EU production and consumption requires a 90% increase of import volumes between 2006 and 2030. The main sources of imported gas for the EU are Russia and Norway. Between them they accounted for 62% of the EU’s gas imports in 2006. The objective of this thesis is to assess the potential future levels of gas supplies to the EU from its two main suppliers, Norway and Russia. Scenarios for future natural gas production potential for Norway and Russia have been modeled utilizing a bottom-up approach, building field-by-field, and individual modeling has been made for giant and semi- giant gas fields. In order to forecast the production profile for an individual giant natural gas field a Giant Gas Field Model (GGF-model) has been developed. The GGF-model has also been applied to production from an aggregate of fields, such as production from small fields and undiscovered resources. Energy security in the EU is heavily dependent on gas supplies from a relatively small number of giant gas fields. In Norway almost all production originates from 18 fields of which 9 can be considered as giant fields. In Russia 36 giant fields account for essentially all gas production. There is limited potential for increased gas exports from Norway to the EU, and all of the scenarios investigated show Norwegian gas production in decline by 2030. Norwegian pipeline gas exports to the EU may even be, by 2030, 20 bcm/year lower than today’s level. The maximum increase in exports of Russian gas supplies to the EU amount to only 45% by 2030. In real numbers this means a mere increase of about 70 bcm In addition, there are a number of potential downside factors for future Russian gas supplies to the European markets. Consequently, a 90% increase of import volumes to the EU by 2030 will be impossible to achieve. From a European energy security perspective the dependence of pipeline gas imports is not the only energy security problem to be in the limelight, the question of physical availability of overall gas supplies deserves serious attention as well. There is a lively discussion regarding the geopolitical implications of European dependence on imported gas from Russia. However, the results of this thesis suggest that when assessing the future gas demand of the EU it would be of equal importance to be concerned about diminishing availability of global gas supplies.

The relationship between shale gas development and budgetary and microeconomic externalities was studied. The extraction activity in the Barnett shaleformation provided a case study for assessing per-well highway infrastructure damage and water usage. The creation of a predictive model based upon the Barnett was applied to the Marcellus formation. The results showed support for the hypothesis that shale gas development creates negative externalities that amount to unfunded mandates and freerider problems for states and localities. Implications and policy solutions, including the case for a Pennsylvania natural gas fund, are discussed. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy / MA; / Thesis;

Sequence stratigraphic analysis of the southern Tyee basin, Oregon Coast Range, reveals that the lower to middle Eocene forearc and subduction zone strata comprise four depositional sequences. Sequence I (lower Umpqua Group) represents a partially subducted accretionary wedge. Sequence II (upper Umpqua Group) is a deltaic sequence that filled irregular lows and thinned over submarine highs created by intrabasin, imbricate thrust faulting. Farther north, Sequences I and II rapidly thin and distally onlap oceanic basalt islands and searnounts of the Siletz River Volcanics to form a condensed section and then thicken again northward. These sequences are overlain by a tectonism-forced transgressive systems tract deposited during an onlap caused by tectonic subsidence and dockwise basin rotation approximately 50 Ma. By middle Eocene, sandy submarine fans and wave-dominated deltas of Sequences III and IV (Tyee, Elkton, Bateman, and Spencer formations) prograded northward down the axis of the Tyee forearc basin and across the structural trend of the Umpqua Group. Organic geochemistry indicates that most units are thermally immature and contain lean, gas-prone Type III kerogen. However, some beds (coals) are sufficiently organic-rich to be sources of biogenic and thermogenic methane discovered in numerous seeps. Reservoir-quality porosities and permeabilities are identified in a few delta front and turbidite sandstones of Sequences II and III, although zeolite, clay, and quartz diagenesis has destroyed most potential sandstone reservoirs. The overall hydrocarbon potential of the basin is moderately low. Several requirements f or commercial accumulations of hydrocarbons, however, probably exist locally within and adjacent to the basin. Three speculative petroleum systems are identified. The first includes the southern part of the basin near the border with the Mesozoic Klamath Mountains and is related to a proposed subduction zone maturation mechanism along thrust faults. The second is centered in the northern part of the study area and may be associated with basin-center gas in an overpressured zone. The third occurs near the eastern border of the basin where maturation is related to local heating by sills and migration of hydrothermal fluids associated with mid- Tertiary volcanism in the Western Cascade arc. / Graduation date: 1995

The importance of the Hotelling Valuation Principle (HVP) in economic study lies in its ability to examine and drive the decision of how much of a non-renewable natural resource to produce now versus how much to conserve for future generations - the root of natural resource policy, conservation, regulation, and taxation. Hotelling (1931) assumes that net price (selling price less cost per unit of production) will grow at the discount rate, which in a deterministic setting implies that reserve value is equal to current net price. However, the application of this ideal theory to the oil and gas industry may be difficult.<p>The oil and gas industry is influenced by government regulation, potential monopolistic forces, and well production characteristics - each of which violate the assumptions of Hotellings (1931) basic theory. How these violations affect the HVP is an open question. Most have the effect of limiting current supply, and thus driving prices higher than they would be in a perfectly competitive market. On the other hand, at least in the Canadian context, government regulation tends to increase costs, whereas technological advancement tends to reduce costs. The net result of these effects on future net prices and their discounted value, and therefore the effect on the HVP, is not clear a priori.<p>Another problem relating Hotellings (1931) basic theory to the oil and gas industry lies in the stochastic nature of a firms future net prices and extraction quantities, the product of which gives the firms future cash flows. Correlation between quantity and net price may result from expanding production when prices are high and reducing production when prices are low. Of course such correlation will affect the expected cash flows, and therefore firm value. Or, in other words, the ability to adjust production quantity provides real options for oil and gas firms which may add value.<p>Previous tests of the HVP on oil and gas reserves have utilized data that may contain confounding information that results in unreliable conclusions. The two major deficiencies include using (1) acquisition values, which utilize basin-average rather than firm specific net price data, and (2) conventional oil and gas company market valuations, which incorporate additional management exploration expertise value beyond the reserves value.<p>This study contributes to the literature by providing a more definitive test of the HVP through the use of Canadian oil and gas royalty trusts. These pure play publicly traded entities are focused on production rather than exploration and essentially remediate the deficiencies found in previous literature. Additionally, I include an ancillary variable to proxy real option value and control variables for firm characteristics such as oil weighting (proportion of oil relative to natural gas reserves), reserve quality (proportion of proven producing reserves relative to proven non-producing reserves), and firm size (based on enterprise value). This gives the reader a better understanding of value drivers in the Canadian oil and gas royalty trust sector and how they relate to the HVP.<p>My study generally fails to find support for the HVP. In particular, the results indicate that the HVP overestimates reserve value. This suggests that market participants expect net prices to grow at a rate significantly lower than the fair cost of capital, and production constraints limiting the extraction rate are binding. I do find that the real option proxy explains a significant amount of the difference between the value observed and the value predicted by the HVP. This differs markedly from what previous literature on the HVP applied to market data for the oil and gas industry documents. Each of these papers fails to reject the HVP. The fact that I generally find the value to be lower than that predicted by the HVP is not surprising given the previous literature using market data to test it. Since these studies use conventional oil and gas companies, which likely overvalue reserves because of an exploration premium, finding support for the HVP likely means that royalty trusts will likely correspond to a value lower than that predicted. The difference could account for the exploration premium. On the other hand, when I use the log-linear specification over the second, more volatile sub-sample, I also fail to reject Hotellings theoretical value, which is consistent with previous literature using market data.

Lifelines provide the vital utilities for human being in the modern life. They convey a great variety of products in order to meet the general needs. Also, buried continuous pipelines are generally used to transmit energy sources, such as natural gas and crude oil, from production sources to target places. To be able to sustain this energy corridor efficiently and safely, interruption of the flow should be prevented as much as possible. This can be achieved providing target reliability index standing for the desired level of performance and reliability. For natural gas transmission, assessment of earthquake threats to buried continuous pipelines is the primary concern of this thesis in terms of reliability. Operating loads due to internal pressure and temperature changes are also discussed. Seismic wave propagation effects, liquefaction induced lateral spreading, including longitudinal and transverse permanent ground deformation effects, liquefaction induced buoyancy effects and fault crossing effects that the buried continuous pipelines subjected to are explained in detail. Limit state functions are presented for each one of the above mentioned earthquake effects combined with operating loads. Advanced First Order Second Moment method is used in reliability calculations. Two case studies are presented. In the first study, considering only the load effect due to internal pressure, reliability of an existing natural gas pipeline is evaluated. Additionally, safety factors are recommended for achieving the specified target reliability indexes. In the second case study, reliability of another existing natural gas pipeline subjected to above mentioned earthquake effects is evaluated in detail.

Den svenska naturgasmarknaden regleras genom naturgaslagen. Enligt 7 kap. 8 a § naturgaslagen föreligger en skyldighet för innehavare av naturgasledningar att ingå avtal med en gasleverantör på marknaden om att denne ska agera anvisad leverantör i fall då gasförbrukaren inte har ett giltigt avtal med en leverantör. Enligt bestämmelsen har dock gasleverantörerna på marknaden ingen skyldighet att ingå avtal med ledningsinnehavaren om att bli anvisad leverantör. Inom avtalsrätten är en fundamental princip avtalsfrihet. Principen innebär en rätt för individer att på egen hand avgöra huruvida avtal ska ingås, med vem avtal ska ingås och på vilka villkor. Avtalsfriheten är dock inte absolut, den är begränsad till följd av olika omständigheter och behov i samhället. Ett av undantagen till avtalsfriheten är kontraheringsplikten, skyldigheten att i vissa fall ingå avtal. Rättsfiguren finns inom olika rättsområden och motiveras ur olika perspektiv. Det har dock utvecklats en princip om en allmän kontraheringsplikt, vilken är utgångspunkten i denna framställning. Skyldigheten för ledningsinnehavaren enligt 7 kap. 8 a § naturgaslagen innebär att ledningsinnehavaren åläggs en kontraheringsplikt. Genom denna framställning presenteras naturgasmarknaden och bakgrunden till denna bestämmelse i syfte att analysera kontraheringsplikten som följer av stadgandet. Motivet till bestämmelsen kompareras med motiven till den allmänna kontraheringsplikten i syfte att analysera hur kontraheringsplikten i 7 kap. 8 a § naturgaslagen förhåller sig till avtalsfriheten och den allmänna kontraheringsplikten. Det ifrågasätts huruvida skyldigheten som åläggs ledningsinnehavaren är att anse som motiverad samt huruvida ett avtalsförhållande är det optimala verktyget för att uppnå det faktiska syftet med bestämmelsen. / The Swedish natural gas market is regulated through the Swedish Natural Gas Act. In accordance with the Natural Gas Act chapter 7 section 8 a the owner of the natural gas pipelines is obliged to enter into an agreement with a gas supplier regarding becoming an assigned gas supplier when gas users do not have a contract with a gas supplier. According to the regulation gas suppliers are not obliged to enter into an agreement with the owner of the pipelines regarding becoming assigned suppliers. Contractual freedom is a fundamental principle in Swedish contract law. The principle gives the right to every individual to decide whether or not to enter into an agreement, with whom to enter the agreement and on which terms. However, the contractual freedom is not absolute, it is limited by various circumstances and needs within society. One of the exceptions from contractual freedom is the obligation to contract. The principle occurs in different judicial areas and is motivated out of different perspectives. However, a principle of general obligation to contract has been identified and is the basis for comparison in this thesis. The obligation imposed on the owner of the pipelines according to the Natural Gas Act chapter 7 section 8 a means that the owner of the pipelines has an obligation to contract. The background to this regulation is presented for the purpose of analyzing the obligation to contract as a consequence of the regulation. The motives of the regulation are compared to the motives of the principle of general obligation to contract in order to analyze the relationship between the obligation to contract according to the regulation, the contractual freedom and the principle of general obligation to contract. The obligation imposed on the owner of the pipelines is questioned alongside the choice to achieve the purpose of the regulation through contract.

The importance of the Hotelling Valuation Principle (HVP) in economic study lies in its ability to examine and drive the decision of how much of a non-renewable natural resource to produce now versus how much to conserve for future generations - the root of natural resource policy, conservation, regulation, and taxation. Hotelling (1931) assumes that net price (selling price less cost per unit of production) will grow at the discount rate, which in a deterministic setting implies that reserve value is equal to current net price. However, the application of this ideal theory to the oil and gas industry may be difficult.<p>The oil and gas industry is influenced by government regulation, potential monopolistic forces, and well production characteristics - each of which violate the assumptions of Hotellings (1931) basic theory. How these violations affect the HVP is an open question. Most have the effect of limiting current supply, and thus driving prices higher than they would be in a perfectly competitive market. On the other hand, at least in the Canadian context, government regulation tends to increase costs, whereas technological advancement tends to reduce costs. The net result of these effects on future net prices and their discounted value, and therefore the effect on the HVP, is not clear a priori.<p>Another problem relating Hotellings (1931) basic theory to the oil and gas industry lies in the stochastic nature of a firms future net prices and extraction quantities, the product of which gives the firms future cash flows. Correlation between quantity and net price may result from expanding production when prices are high and reducing production when prices are low. Of course such correlation will affect the expected cash flows, and therefore firm value. Or, in other words, the ability to adjust production quantity provides real options for oil and gas firms which may add value.<p>Previous tests of the HVP on oil and gas reserves have utilized data that may contain confounding information that results in unreliable conclusions. The two major deficiencies include using (1) acquisition values, which utilize basin-average rather than firm specific net price data, and (2) conventional oil and gas company market valuations, which incorporate additional management exploration expertise value beyond the reserves value.<p>This study contributes to the literature by providing a more definitive test of the HVP through the use of Canadian oil and gas royalty trusts. These pure play publicly traded entities are focused on production rather than exploration and essentially remediate the deficiencies found in previous literature. Additionally, I include an ancillary variable to proxy real option value and control variables for firm characteristics such as oil weighting (proportion of oil relative to natural gas reserves), reserve quality (proportion of proven producing reserves relative to proven non-producing reserves), and firm size (based on enterprise value). This gives the reader a better understanding of value drivers in the Canadian oil and gas royalty trust sector and how they relate to the HVP.<p>My study generally fails to find support for the HVP. In particular, the results indicate that the HVP overestimates reserve value. This suggests that market participants expect net prices to grow at a rate significantly lower than the fair cost of capital, and production constraints limiting the extraction rate are binding. I do find that the real option proxy explains a significant amount of the difference between the value observed and the value predicted by the HVP. This differs markedly from what previous literature on the HVP applied to market data for the oil and gas industry documents. Each of these papers fails to reject the HVP. The fact that I generally find the value to be lower than that predicted by the HVP is not surprising given the previous literature using market data to test it. Since these studies use conventional oil and gas companies, which likely overvalue reserves because of an exploration premium, finding support for the HVP likely means that royalty trusts will likely correspond to a value lower than that predicted. The difference could account for the exploration premium. On the other hand, when I use the log-linear specification over the second, more volatile sub-sample, I also fail to reject Hotellings theoretical value, which is consistent with previous literature using market data.