A deficient safety culture has been implicated in a number of organisational accidents from a range of high hazard industries. Despite its implications for safety, many questions about safety culture remain unanswered. In order to contribute to the literature on this topic, this thesis set out to investigate the role of trust in safety culture. The oil and gas industry was chosen as the context for study due to the hazardous nature of its work, the industry’s focus on continuous improvement in safety performance and the interest shown by oil companies in participating in safety research. Leading models of safety culture have stressed the importance of trust in developing and maintaining patterns of safe behaviours at work. This thesis proposed a new model of safety culture based on dual attitudes about trust. This model states that explicit attitudes about trust are part of safety climate and that implicit attitudes about trust comprise some of the basic underlying assumptions that are the deepest level of safety culture. In order to test this model, this thesis developed a method to measure implicit attitudes about trust in an industrial setting. Using this method, two studies of dual attitudes about trust were conducted at different UK gas plants. In both of these studies, different patterns of results were found for measures of explicit and implicit attitudes about trust for workmates, supervisors and the plant leadership, respectively. These findings support the proposed model suggest that explicit and implicit attitudes about trust are separate constructs that may influence different types of safety behaviours.  Positive relationships were found between measures of explicit attitudes about trust and self-report items about safety behaviours like reporting incidents and challenging unsafe acts.  These findings were taken as a step toward validating the proposed model.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1975. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-167).

This thesis explores two themes on upstream oil and gas economics centred on offshore safety economics and third party access to infrastructure in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS). The first part involves work that explores the nexus between the offshore safety regime and safety outcomes. It contributes to the literature by explaining the post-Piper Alpha safety regime changes with regard to our understanding, framing of safety decision making and benchmarking of safety outcomes. The second part investigates third party access to infrastructure issues in the UKCS. It contributes to our understanding of how different third party access to infrastructure arrangements can be utilised to maximise economic recovery. Each chapter addresses fundamental issues of North Sea oil and gas operations through the application of microeconomic, operations research and econometric methods within a formal analytical framework. The results provide insights into decision-making complexities in the upstream oil and gas industry by guiding policy makers. Specifically, part one of this thesis looks at safety performance in the post-Piper Alpha era in the UKCS. It investigates ways through which a more comprehensive and theoretically informed framework can be used to understand the linkages that arise when dealing with safety regulations and their impacts on the offshore oil and gas industry. Our objective is to empirically ascertain the determinants of offshore hydrocarbon releases within the context of the post-Piper Alpha offshore safety regime regulations. This is done using an observed number of hydrocarbon releases linked to a population denominator data of the number of the installations present in the UKCS. Three research problems are examined: (1) the transmission mechanisms through which safety regulation influence firm and industry productivity; (2) the assessment methods utilised in measuring and benchmarking regulatory outcomes in terms of safety compliance; and (3) the extent to which safety policies contribute to enhancing safety levels in the oil and gas industry. We initially review the background and literature on offshore safety with a particular emphasis on the UKCS in Chapter 2. We also frame our research questions and underlying hypothesis here. In Chapter 3, we present our underlying empirical framework and model specifications followed by some descriptive analysis of the hydrocarbon releases data. The results of the various econometric model specifications are analysed in Chapter 4. The second part of the thesis explores how possible different ownership patterns (including access arrangements) might affect the economic viability of exploiting remaining resources in the UKCS. This section attempts to answer two critical questions namely how the impact of the separation of infrastructure and field ownership affect economic recovery and the impact of taxation on field and hub economics in a mature oil basin. We explore how possible different ownership structures and access arrangements might affect the economic viability of remaining UKCS reserves. We apply a mixed integer programming (MIP) model to field data from the Northern North Sea. Specifically, we examine how the unbundling of infrastructure and field ownership, as well as different cost sharing and tariff arrangements, affect the long-term economics of hubs and their user fields. Regarding the layout, Chapter 5 talks about access to infrastructure issues in the UKCS namely the regulatory framework for access and related legislation. It leads to the development of a conceptual framework and model based upon which extractions are made to capture the various potential market outcomes. In Chapter 6, the empirical model, which utilises the mixed integer programming approach, is discussed. The data sources and characterization, as well as the presentation of the results from the Baseline Model, are presented in Chapter 7. The analysis of the Tax Model and the Cost Sharing plus Tax Model including structure and simulated results with underlying assumptions are presented in Chapter 8. Finally, Chapter 9 leads to a thorough discussion of the results followed by conclusions and policy recommendations.

The development and production of Canadian offshore petroleum deposits raises three key sets of issues of interest to economists. First are questions relating to the impact of royalties and taxes on producer decisions, and hence on the level and efficiency of resource taxation. Other issues concern the impacts on the overall economy during both the construction and production phases. A third set of issues relates to the distribution of powers and resource revenues between federal and provincial governments, including the links between provincial resource revenues and equalization payments. This thesis develops a numerically tractable economic model designed to examine these issues. At the model's core is a one-to-one relationship between development plans and production profiles. This property is exploited in simulating the behaviour of a price-taking, net-present-value-maximizing producer under conditions of certainty. The model is linked with a macroeconometric model of the Canadian economy to study the potential consequences of Hibernia, a petroleum deposit located in the Eastern Canadian offshore region. This deposit was chosen for analysis because its size, location and low costs (relative to current world oil prices) combine to raise all of the issues listed above. In most cases studied, producer responses to government policies result in the dissipation of less than five percent of the deposit's net present value to society. Although cases are identified where these responses have more serious consequences, the resulting dissipation of potential net benefits never exceeds 15 percent. The extension of specific forms of royalty and tax relief to the producer generally reduces the distortionary effects of government policies. The simulated exploitation of Hibernia induces small but sympathetic changes in most macroeconomic variables. The net crowding-out effects on other industries are shown to be relatively small, and to be more prevalent during the construction period. The results suggest that the larger share of the net benefits accruing to governments flows to the provincial treasury under three of the revenue-sharing systems modelled. However, Newfoundland and Labrador would lose a substantial portion of its Hibernia revenues under all of the equalization systems modelled. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

Thesis. 1977. Ocean E.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / Ocean E.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of Canberra, 2007. / Thesis submitted to fulfil the requirements of the unit of Masters Thesis in Administration, and complete the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Administration, University of Canberra, July 2007. Bibliography: leaves 177-205.

Thesis (M. S.)--Texas A&M University, 2004. / Vita. Abstract. "Major Subject: Petroleum Engineering" Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MA )--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Understanding a risk is the first step in managing and mitigating it. Maritime insecurity has been an integrated risk for investors in the Gulf of Guinea for many years. But what do investors know about the nature of maritime insecurity in the Gulf of Guinea, besides a general risk rating? This thesis conceptualises and maps the maritime political risks in the Gulf of Guinea in order to give investors a better understanding of the nature of maritime political risk for the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Guinea. This conceptualisation is based on identifying the actors and actions of maritime security, i.e. people create maritime insecurity and identifying the people behind maritime insecurity provides valuable information for management and mitigation strategies. These actors create maritime insecurity by using a variety of actions, i.e. identifying these actions tells the investor more about the nature of maritime insecurity. However, there are also actors that contribute to maritime security and these actors use a set of actions to make maritime security a reality. In summary, this thesis creates a maritime political risk tool where one axis consists of actors contributing positively and/or negatively to maritime security and another axis that consists of actions these actors employ. This is done by providing the reader with a strong understanding of the theory behind political risk and conceptualising relevant concepts. The thesis contextualises maritime security, the offshore oil and gas industry and general political risks in the Gulf of Guinea. On this foundation, the maritime political risk tool is created by extrapolating information from four political risk companies: Aon, Control Risk, Bergen Risk Solution and Risk Intelligence. The maritime political risk actors and actions are also identified. The maritime political risk tool is applied to the case of the Gulf of Guinea. The conclusion is that conceptualising and mapping maritime political risk can improve management and mitigation strategies. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die verstaan van ‘n risiko is die eerste stap in die bestuur en beheer daarvan. Maritieme onveiligheid is al vir jare 'n geïntegreerde risiko vir beleggers in die Golf van Guinee, maar wat weet beleggers werklik oor die aard van die gebied van maritieme onveiligheid in die Golf van Guinee, behalwe vir ʼn risikogradering? Hierdie tesis konseptualiseer die maritieme politieke risiko's in die Golf van Guinee om vir beleggers 'n beter begrip van die aard van maritieme politieke risiko's in die aflandige olie- en gasindustrie in die Golf van Guinee te gee. Hierdie konseptualisering is gebaseer op die identifisering van die akteurs en die aksies betrokke by maritieme veiligheid, d.w.s. maritieme onveiligheid word geskep deur mense. Die identifisering van die mense wat maritieme onveiligheid skep, bied waardevolle inligting tot bestuurs- en beheerstrategieë aan. Die akteurs van maritieme onveiligheid skep onsekerheid deur die gebruik van 'n verskeidenheid van aksies, dit wil sê die identifisering van hierdie aksies gee die belegger meer inligting oor die aard van maritieme onveiligheid. Daar is egter ook akteurs wat bydra tot die gebied van maritieme veiligheid. Dié akteurs gebruik 'n reeks van aksies om veiligheid op see 'n werklikheid te maak. Om op te som, skep hierdie tesis 'n maritieme politiese risiko instrument waar die een as uit akteurs bestaan wat 'n positiewe en / of negatiewe bydra tot maritieme veiligheid maak, en die ander as bestaan uit die gebeure wat hierdie akteurs in diens kan neem. Dit word gedoen deur die leser met 'n sterk begrip van politieke risiko teorie te voorsien, asook om relevante konsepte duidelik te konseptualiseer. Dié tesis kontekstualiseer maritieme veiligheid, die aflandige olie- en gasindustrie en politieke risiko soortgelyk met betrekking tot die Golf van Guinee. Op hierdie fondament word die maritieme politieke risiko instrument geskep deur die ekstrapolering van inligting uit vier politieke risiko maatskappye: Aon, Control Risk, Bergen Risk Solution en Risk Intelligence. Die maritieme politieke risiko akteurs en aksies word ookgeïdentifiseer. Verder word die maritieme politieke risiko-instrument toegepas op die geval van die Golf van Guinee. Die gevolgtrekking wat bereik word, is dat die konseptualisering en die kartering van akteurs en aksies, maritieme politieke risiko, bestuur- en versagtingstrategieë kan verbeter.