This thesis examines the joint venture relationship in the context of the exploration phase of the development of an oil and gas field in Great Britain and Australia. It considers a number of issues relating to the relationship between the Participants of a typical Joint Operating Agreement within the legal regimes of Great Britain and Australia. Against this background the main issues addressed in this thesis are- 1. the nature of the joint venture?; 2. the relationship between the Participants inter se; and 3. the relationship between the Operator and the Participants. In addressing these issues the following questions are addressed: - (i) what is a joint venture?; (ii) is a joint venture a separate legal relationship?; (iii) how is a joint venture distinguished from a partnership?; (iv) what is the relationship between the participants inter se?; (v) what rights does a participant of a joint venture have in relation to the joint venture and the other participants of a joint venture?; (vi) what interest, contractural or proprietary, does a participant of a joint venture have in the joint venture and the property thereof?; vii) what duties does a participant of a joint venture have to the joint venture and the other participants of the joint venture?; and (viii) what is the legal position when a participant of a joint venture defaults in complying with its duties?

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.

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

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

Thesis (Professional Degree)--University of Missouri, School of Mines and Metallurgy, 1934. / The entire thesis text is included in file. Typescript. Title from title screen of thesis/dissertation PDF file (viewed July 15, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-117) and index (p. 118-129).

This thesis is concerned with the legal management of risk in oil and gas operations upon the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. The work focusses in particular upon geological risk, political risk and the regulatory and commercial risks pertaining to major accidents. Geological risk relates to the fact that generally, oil and gas is concealed within geological formations in the deep underground. Exploration activity is, as a result, both difficult and expensive. The thesis considers the extent to which the UK's chosen licensing system has struck an appropriate balance on who should bear the risk of failure of such operations. Political risk involves (on the one hand) the risks faced by investors in interacting with the state and (on the other) the risks faced by the state when designing its regulatory system. Investors are in a precarious position due to the high level of capital investment and long-term nature of oil and gas operations: they are therefore concerned to ensure stability and autonomy of operation. The state, on the other hand, is concerned that it is not taken advantage of by the (usually more knowledgeable) industry player when designing its regulatory system. The risk of major accident is reflected both in regulation of health, safety and the environment and in the contractual arrangements entered into by commercial entities in order to determine which party should bear ultimate liability in the event that an accident causes wide-spread loss. Having regard to the example of the law applied on the UK continental shelf, the thesis demonstrates that while risk can never be wholly removed from oil and gas operations, the law can be effectively used to mitigate risk and thereafter to facilitate he appropriate distribution of such residual levels of risk as remain.

This study analyses the impact of oil-related developments on output, incomes and employment in Shetland. An Input-Output approach is adopted based on a Shetland transactions table constructed by the author. Using this, the pre-oil Shetland economy is analysed as base for assessing oil impact. Three major oil activities are identified and their local effects estimated: Supply Bases, the Sullom Voe Tanker Terminal, and Oil-related Construction. Estimates of the impact of these on local activity are given in aggregate and on an individual industry basis. Appropriate oil sector 'multipliers' are derived. Attempts are made to modify the basic estimates by allowing for 'negative multiplier' effects, induced investment and other elements of impact excluded in the basic model. Finally, the possibility of oil-induced changes in local technology is considered and its implications for the preceding impact estimates discussed. In the conclusions the results of the previous analysis are drawn together and some policy implications suggested by them are considered briefly.

No description available.

The Offshore Installation Manager (OIM) performs one of the most complex and critical roles within the UK offshore oil and gas industry. The OIM is responsible for the safety and well-being of all persons onboard and within 500m of the installation whilst operating within an isolated and hostile physical environment within the UK Continental Shelf . The persistence of major incidents in the industry highlights the importance of OIM competence in controlling emergencies, consequently the research aims to contribute to new knowledge by identifying the potential barriers that can prevent the effective competence assessment of an OIM in this situation. The research utilised Engeström's Expanded Activity Theory to establish the holistic socio-cultural environment within which the OIM operates during emergency response to establish the key documents relevant to the role and associated competence assessment. The documents were then analysed using a critical hermeneutic approach based on the work of Phillips and Brown (1993) to determine the potential barriers to effective competence assessment of the OIM in controlling emergencies. The research is interdisciplinary and aims to develop new knowledge within the domains of safety engineering and law. The output from the research will assist industry Duty Holders improve the competence assessment of their appointed OIMs and allow safety engineers to consider the probable competence of an OIM at a given point in time. The research has identified 8 potential barriers to the effective competence assessment of OIMs in controlling emergencies. These are associated with the multiple definitions of competence that exist; the predominance of competence assessment by observation; the lack of definitive competence requirements for trainers and assessors; the complexity in UK legislation and the interaction between UK Government departments; concerns associated with goal setting legislation when applied to competence assessment and the lack of statutory competence requirements for OIMs in controlling emergencies; the lack of ownership of OIM competence and competence assessment; and the lack of regulation and independent audit of the competence assessment process of OIMs in controlling emergencies.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology could help reduce anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. So far, CCS has failed to attract government support in the UK due to high costs of implementation. The broad deployment of CO2-EOR could aid the development of CCS by providing additional revenue streams for investors. The success of the CO2- EOR in the United States has raised the question of whether this success could be replicated in the UKCS. This thesis answers these questions by introducing two distinct models, which analyse the similarities and differences between the two oil provinces from the subsurface and economic perspectives. The first model integrates into the economic framework the behaviour of oil and CO2 in a reservoir. The model is applied to an oil field in the North Sea. It analyses whether the screening criteria developed based on the onshore US experience to screen for oil field candidates for the CO2 would be suitable for the oil fields in the UKCS. The second model is a theoretical CO2-EOR with storage model, which analyses how the inclusion of permanent storage changes the economics of CO2-EOR. The CO2-EOR with storage model allows for an endogenous switching point between the CO2-EOR and the permanent CO2 storage phase depending on the various economic factors, such as oil prices, sequestration subsidies and fees, CO2 price, and oil and gas tax rates. The CO2-EOR with storage model shows different behaviour compared to the case without permanent storage. On the policy level, the main difference between the two countries revealed that the UK strongly focuses on cutting CO2 emissions while the U.S. on boosting domestic oil production. Therefore, the third study in this thesis investigates the net carbon footprint of the CO2-EOR activity in the North Sea.