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One of the first commercial oil wells in the world was drilled in southwest Trinidad, and the century of hydrocarbon production that followed has shaped the region's social and physical landscape. The Shell Oil Company built the town of Point Fortin to be its oilfield headquarters in this territory, and through the first half of the 1900s the company was a pervasive employer, sponsor and overseer in the town. In recent decades, Point Fortin's oil refinery has closed down and the Atlantic Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Corporation began operating its facility on a nearby site. Corresponding with Trinidad and Tobago's structural adjustment period, this transition ushered in a new labor regime and community relations model that have reconfigured the relationship among Point Fortin residents, major petroleum companies, and the state. This dissertation utilizes an ethnohistorical approach to illuminate how livelihoods, sense of place, and expectations for the future have changed through the town's dynamic 100-year encounter with petro-industrialization. It explores the distinct features of oil and natural gas, tracing the particular ways they animate and constrain the social, political and industrial networks of which they are part. These two fossil fuels behave very differently, from the communities where they are produced and processed, to the global market. Attending to the materiality of the resources themselves yields insights into the assemblage of machines, bodies, logics, and institutions that constitutes the industrial ecology of Trinidad and Tobago.

It has been shown in the literature that the oil and gas industry deals with a substantial number of biases that impact project evaluation and portfolio performance. Previous studies concluded that properly estimating uncertainties will significantly impact the success of risk takers and their profits. Although a considerable number of publications investigated the impact of cognitive biases, few of these publications tackled the problem from a quantitative point of view. The objective of this work is to demonstrate the value of quantifying uncertainty and evaluate its impact on the optimization of oil and gas portfolios, taking into consideration the risk of each project. A model has been developed to perform portfolio optimization using Markowitz theory. In this study, portfolio optimization has been performed in the presence of different levels of overconfidence and directional bias to determine the impact of these biases on portfolio performance. The results show that disappointment in performance occurs not only because the realized portfolio net present value (NPV) is lower than estimated, but also because the realized portfolio risk is higher than estimated. This disappointment is due to both incorrect estimation of value and risk (estimation error) and incorrect project selection (decision error). The results of the cases analyzed show that, in a high-risk-tolerance environment, moderate overconfidence and moderate optimism result in an expected decision error of about 19% and an expected disappointment of about 50% of the estimated portfolio. In a low-risk-tolerance environment, the same amounts of moderate overconfidence and optimism result in an expected decision error up to 103% and an expected disappointment up to 78% of the estimated portfolio. Reliably quantifying uncertainty has the value of reducing the expected disappointment and the expected decision error. This can be achieved by eliminating overconfidence in the process of project evaluation and portfolio optimization. Consequently, overall industry performance can be improved because accurate estimates enable identification of superior portfolios, with optimum reward and risk levels, and increase the probability of meeting expectations.

The purpose of this research is to inform planning, engineering, and management decisions concerning transportation systems that serve the petroleum exploration and production industry in North America. The research applies the transportation systems analysis approach to characterize the petroleum activity system and transportation system in southwest Manitoba and to develop freight flows. The research develops a framework to estimate and assign petroleum-related truck traffic to the regional highway network taking into account the variability of the industry. This is done by integrating components of freight demand modeling and truck traffic monitoring processes to improve understanding of truck traffic flow characteristics related to the industry. The results of the research are presented in an interactive mapping data dissemination tool. The approach and methodologies of this research are transferable to other jurisdictions and can be used to address the needs of other industry-specific developments.

The oil extraction mechanisms of hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, and acidization have recently spread throughout the state of California. This thesis explores and assesses whether federal and state legislation should approve of fracking operations in California after studying its effects on human health, the environment, and the economy. This thesis assesses the impacts of fracking; analyzes the role of current legislation and regulation; compares California fracking to fracking in other states and countries; and provides recommendations for future action.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 228-238).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 300-306.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Tulsa, 1991. / Bibliography: leaves 228-233.